Into the Darkness
by Coop83
Summary: Gareth Dempsey. A man without much direction in life has purpose thrust upon him.
1. Chapter 1

**Into the Darkness**

**Prologue**

I guess you could say that I'm not really what my parents wanted me to be. They were always hoping that my older brother Iwan would take over the family business as a sheep farmer in Aberdovey, but that never stopped them from making sure that I was ready in case things didn't work out.

When they didn't, and Iwan went to fight in Kosovo, I guess you could understand the devastation that my parents went through, especially when Iwan came back in a coffin, draped with the Union Flag. I couldn't say for sure that it was where the troubles started for me, but having the weight of expectation thrust upon you don't really do a teenager any good, to be honest.

I left home at seventeen, to seek my fortune. A blazing row with my father over my unwillingness to learn farming had driven a wedge between us over one of my mum's cottage pies. Rather than finish my meal, I packed my things and left, with dad's boot up my arse for my trouble.

With little money and no real direction, I got myself a job working for the post office. A postman is an honourable profession, but as hindsight would have it, it's not really the best of choices for a sufferer of Cynophobia – a chronic fear of dogs. I've never liked dogs at all, but money is money and without that, I wouldn't be able to have a roof over my head, so I had to make do.

This stop gap career has kept me going for about ten years now. I just try to be as quiet as possible around the houses that I know have dogs and most people are quite understanding about it all. My ex-girlfriend was really good about it, although her parents never really liked me, possibly because I could never see their two dogs in the same room as me, which was a shame.

I've been reading a few books on facing your fears – I do that most days when I'm at work, but it still doesn't do me any favours, but a few of the early birds, who go to work at about the same time as me will stop and chat on occasion and have given me a few pointers.

That's when I noticed that there was something wrong with me. Charlie, one of my friends who also lived on my round called me to the door one morning and tried to get me to face my fear. His little terrier, Rex came scampering along the hall and he told me, with a firm grip on my shirt that I should be firm but fair with Rex, telling him to get down and if he did not obey, Charlie was going to pull him away. After all, he claimed, Rex won't bite.

I stood there and eventually agreed. Charlie opened the door and Rex jumped up at me, as I was advised he would do. Charlie prompted me to tell him to get down, so I did.

"REX! GET DOWN!" I barked at the dog, which not only got down, but ran from my sight and cowered. Charlie was stunned, but regained enough composure to take the post and let me get on with my round. I called him later to try and even things up, but Charlie told me that Rex hadn't come out from under the dining table all day and was petrified. I'm no expert, but I've never heard of a dog being that scared of anyone. I carried on my round, somewhat perplexed by the events of that morning.

Monmouth. A place for people who want to leave Wales, but can't quite bring themselves to take that final step. You can take a day trip into England and come back when it suits you. I'd been living there for a few years, with my postal routes had taken me well around the area, which has started to feel like home. Despite splitting up with Karen over the gaping void between our personalities, I had resolved to move onwards, even though this mostly meant that my life remained the same.

I was on my long morning post round on a Tuesday. I'd come to Blaenau Crescent, which in itself is just a normal road in the town. I walked calmly up the path to the door, listening to Radio 4. Living with my parents never gave me much chance to listen to music, save for the occasional recital from the male voice choir, but there weren't any radio stations that broadcast that around Monmouth.

As I deposited the few bills into the letterbox, I heard an excited yipping. Not wanting to stick around for any dogs, I decided to just turn and walk away. I stopped to tie my boot lace up and then I saw the excited little critter. Not really a dog, now that I think about it – more like a rodent of some sort. It ran up some junk behind the back gate and jumped the gate, deciding to chase me. I stood and started to walk off, trying to concentrate more on the news headlines than this embodiment of my fear. Then it decided that I wasn't what it liked on the garden path and I could have sworn I heard something say "kill!" It latched itself onto the back of my leg and I jumped, as the pain of a sharp nip passed up my leg.

The little bugger just wouldn't let go and I decided to try to make a getaway before the Doberman that lives at number 14 woke up and decided to make his feelings clearly known to me and most of the neighbourhood. Rather than fumble with the gate, I jumped over the brick wall and slipped, as if my boot had caught momentarily on something sticky. I fell, as I twisted to get my leg free of both this obstruction and the erstwhile canine fiend that was still griping tightly to my trouser leg.

As I fell, everything went blue and it felt like there were hundreds of strands of spider silk against my back, slowly breaking. The dog just seemed to get stuck and was torn free of my trouser leg. Rather than feeling afraid of the dog that was no longer on my leg, I felt angry that it had dared to try and bite me, but I couldn't explain why. Somehow, it seemed like I fell for a lot longer than a 3-foot garden wall would usually take and when I landed, I hit my head on the pavement and blacked out.

When I came to, there was a beautiful woman standing over me, her expression not quite an angry one, but somewhat amused to see me lying there. To my left, was a large black wolf, which I was very nervous around, though she never made any threatening gesture in my direction.

"Gareth Dempsey, you are ours." The woman declared in a commanding, sure tone. All I could bring myself to respond to her with was a rather weak sounding "oh." Starting to sit up, I could have sworn that I heard the black wolf talk to me – the voice was different to the woman who stood over me. This voice sounded slightly broken, as if speaking through lips that weren't really designed for speech. This voice had a growl to it.

"Welcome to the Hisil, child of the crescent moon." She said to me. I watched the wolf's muzzle spell out the words, dumbfounded and quickly pinched myself and listened to the many questions buzzing around my head:

"That's a fucking big dog less than 2 feet from my face!"

"Did that wolf just speak to me?"

"Two hot women talking to me, like I'm normal? I must be dead, or dreaming."

"Two?! Did I just think that?"

In the end, I just settled for "What's a Hisil?" Rather unceremoniously, I was hauled to eye level with the woman by the scruff of my neck.

"Not **a **Hisil, **the** Hisil – The world of the spirits that lives in parallel with the world of the Herd. There cannot be one without the other. It is our job to preserve the balance between the two."

"I thought my job was to deliver letters and parcels." The woman was not happy about this and bundled me over toward a parked car. She pushed me in front of the wing mirror and I saw that my face had changed – more hair, which was a lot more messed up than I usually allow myself and I looked bigger and more muscular.

"So our perceptions of each other change in this Hisil, then?" I adjusted my hair a little in the mirror, not exactly horrified by what I was seeing, my uniform had become tattered and torn as if I had somehow grown too big for it all of a sudden. Not only now sporting a beard, the tears along the seams of the shirt and trousers seemed to have a lot of body hair poking through.

"This is not a change in your perception – your really do look like that. We all have the power to change from human to wolf and a few stages in between, as we are both." She stood back and allowed me to continue looking at my new visage for a while longer.

"So, how do I make myself change then? I don't remember much about when I changed to this form…"

"First you must think like a wolf. Imagine running on all fours across open country, hunting down a wild animal for your food. Second, you must feel what it is like to focus single minded on the prey, with only the idea of it or you. Finally, you must be that wolf." The dark wolf stepped back from me and cast her gaze over me. "Show us what you can be."

I kept telling myself a simple mantra "Think, feel, be." And imagined the need to eat. With that, came a small rabbit bouncing over the countryside. Then, I felt the hunger in my belly, the blast of cold air and the hair all over my body was suddenly moved in ripples across my skin. I looked down at myself and was shocked to see that I was now adorned with a chocolate brown coat of fur and white paws. I staggered about a little, trying to come to terms with having twice as many legs as I was accustomed to.

"Very good, Gareth. You will make a fine Hunter in Darkness. But before that, we will need to return to your home." With that, the wolf started running up the road and in one leap, the woman changed into a very dark wolf and started running next to her companion. I continued to struggle to keep pace with them, though gradually picked up the idea of running with four legs, instead of two.

About half an hour later, we arrived at the front door of my home and the woman reverted back to her human form. Walking down the entry, towards the back door, the wolf walked past the back door and looked at a patch of lawn in the garden. A few seconds later, the feeling of spider silk tugging at me passed overhead and the light of a new day was upon me.

I raised a quick query, as we walked back to the door. "Um… I think I left my keys with the rest of the stuff towards the end of the round…" Calmly, the woman put her hand in her pocket and produced a key chain. She put the key into the back door and proceeded to unlock the door.

"How long have you had a key for my house?" I was naturally a little concerned about this.

"I managed to get a copy of your key pretty soon after you moved to Monmouth. We've been watching you for some time now, let's just put it like that." She walked into the kitchen and held the door open politely for me to enter, still in my guise as a dark brown wolf with white paws. Looking around to see if any of my neighbours had noticed a strange woman open my back door, I went into the kitchen and walked through into the dining room, or as it had become more recently, my rudimentary study.

"Where is your companion?" I asked, noting that the large black wolf had not accompanied us here.

"Hikaon-Ur, the Black Wolf is what we call a totem spirit of our tribe. She has watched over you and decided that she wanted a closer look upon your first change. You seem to have struck a chord with her, at the very least. She does not cross the Gauntlet very often. Trust me on this one but, you will be very grateful if ever she chooses to cross in your presence."

I followed her upstairs, somewhat alarmed that I was being led around my own home by someone who I thought had never been in the place up until this morning. She opened my bedroom door and sat herself down on the bed, facing me.

"You're going to need some clothes. Yours were mostly destroyed by your change to your Urhan form."

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to explain this to me in words I can understand. What's Urhan form?

"Urhan is what you could call your 'near man' form. It's a little closer to the wolf within, but still predominantly humane in appearance. Now, you're going to have to change back to a man – your Hishu form, if you please."

I stood there and allowed my mantra to come back to the front of my brain. Think. Feel. Be. Knowing that this change should not be so difficult, as I had been me for almost three decades now, I felt a rush of adrenaline and cool air, as I stood up onto my hind legs and stretched out my arms, bringing them back in front of me and seeing my all too familiar figure again. Butt naked, in front of this werewolf, who had introduced herself less than an hour before.

Covering what little modesty I still possessed, I ran over to my wardrobe. To the sniggering of the woman sitting on my bed, I grabbed a pair of black jeans, my faded blue dead smiley T-Shirt and a sturdy pair of boots. She smiled at my discomfort, while I dressed.

"Relax. You're not my type. Besides, even if you were, we don't want to take it any further. Our blood is too potent for that sort of thing. Ask Michael, when you meet him."

"And Michael is..?" I sat down on the bed next to her and began tying my boot laces.

"Michael is his nickname – his real name is John Jackson. He will be the one who initiates you into the world as you will see it from now on. I have but one more task to do for you – The Rite of Dedication." She took out a penknife and asked for my hand, which I grudgingly offered to her. A quick slice and she had quite a reservoir of blood in the palm of my hand, which she then used to paint circular symbols on my clothes and boots, while chanting some incantation that I had never heard before. When she had finished chanting, she waved her hand over my chest and the blood stains seemed to disappear into the fabric.

"There, you may now change form with these items, without damaging them. You may also cross the gauntlet without these possessions becoming harmed, as they are effectively you. When you learn more about yourself and grow stronger, you might also learn this rite. With your new understanding of the balance, you may be able to take more items."

Struggling to take all of this in, I looked at her slightly gone out. It had taken a while for my human side to catch up with events, but the machinery within my brain was turning and I was forming the statement 'but I'm just a postman…'

"You look hungry. I could do with a snack myself." She looked at me, still trying to come to terms again "Relax, Gareth. I'm not going to do anything really weird now. We can just go and raid the fridge, that's all." Feeling a little more encouraged by all of this, I got up, walked down into the kitchen and started rooting around for something to sate my hunger.

"There's not really anything that good in here – I'm not really in the mood for eggs and there's no milk, so that's buggered." I muttered away more or less to myself, as the girl opened the fridge and took out a large pack of steak that I'd never noticed before.

"Oh no, it's half past seven in the morning and you want to start cooking steak?" She calmly unwrapped the packaging from around the steak and offered it to me.

"No thanks, I prefer mine a little more well done than that." I turned away and carried on rooting through the cupboards to try and find something to eat.

"You're going to have to eat something a lot less appetising than a hunk of raw prime steak. Just eat it, you'll feel a lot better when you've got it over and done with." She laughed a little nasal chuckle "One day, if ever we meet again, you might just thank me for it."

The meat tasted strange to me, as I'd never eaten like this before. My appetite dictated that I shouldn't stop, so I carried on and devoured the steak hungrily. I wiped my mouth clear of the blood and washed it down with the remnants of a bottle in the fridge.

"Trust me, it tastes better just after the kill – chilled never quite makes up for it." There was a knock on the door as I finished cleaning up the mess from my snack and the woman went and opened the door. There was a reasonably well built guy, wearing torn camouflage trousers, muddy but sturdy looking shoes and a great coat that looked like it was straight out of World War II. He wiped his feet and stepped across the threshold

"Ah, you must be Gareth. Nightwatch here has told me a lot about you. When he mentioned the name Nightwatch, he indicated the woman, who flashed me a small smile. "I hope you've got your running legs on – we've got 50 miles to travel and not that long to travel it in."

I drained the bottle and dropped the empty carton by the sink for washing up and turned to my new acquaintance. I shook his hand as firmly as I could and looked him square in the eye. "You have me on the defensive – you know my name and yet I know not yours. I only know Nightwatch's as you informed me."

"Well, as we're all friends here, I can tell you that my name is John Jackson. Nightwatch is just Sarah's honorific – the name that best displays the achievements and abilities of each Uratha. Irrakka like Sarah find their skills are best when it comes to lurking in the shadows, scouting out all sorts of things and being stealthy. She has watched over you for many years now."

Sarah laid her hand on my shoulder, as I tried to take in yet more information about my new life. "Perhaps you'll have an honorific of your own when next we meet. Now, you've got to make your way to Worcester."

"Why Worcester? Isn't there any need for me around here?" I seemed crestfallen by the fact that I was going to leave my home once again.

"Worcester is where the Elders have decided your skills will be used to their best potential. John is going to teach you the basics and by the time you get to Worcester, you should be able to fit in with the pack."

"What about my stuff? Worcester is quite a way to commute without a car." This question brought a sturdy laugh from both of the Uratha standing before me.

"Two of my pack-mates are Iron Masters. They will arrange transport and will get you sorted with a new place, job transfer and all the basics covered. Very few people go through the first change and mysteriously disappear; otherwise you'd hear more about it. Don't worry, they will find you, when it's ready." I shook hands with her and walked out of the door, ready to be taught by this mysterious, but somehow slightly familiar looking man. He shouldered his backpack and started striding off down the road – I fell into step with him.

"Tough day, eh Gareth? Relax, life just took a turn for the better – you've met me. It's my job to teach you the basics of being an Uratha and from there, we can set you up with your pack. That shouldn't be too difficult."

"So you're going to teach me everything about…" I dropped my voice down low, as I'd heard from a few people on my rounds that had overheard me talking to the radio. "Werewolves and the like?"

"Not everything. I'm going to teach you the basics about who we are, what we do, some etiquette about how to behave around bigger Uratha than you and so forth. So, let's start from the beginning – there are five tribes that you're likely to meet over the next few weeks and months. The 'Bone Shadows', who are shamanistic. They specialise in exploring the world of shadow and particularly in the spirits that live there." I found it quite difficult to keep up with his gabbling manner at this point, although the expansive hand gestures were an aide, so long as he didn't knock me into the road.

"They sound like a barrel of laughs." I smirked as we walked down the road.

"They are fine – you need to remember that with your auspice, which is the phase of the moon you were born to the Uratha under, you are probably going to be seeing a lot of them. We had to fight them off for you, so you clearly have many facets, my lad." He paused, sniffed the air and directed me down an alley in the housing estate, which I followed, unquestioning.

"Don't go talking about this around normal people though – they aren't all in the know about us – those that are in the know don't always react favourably either. I'm sure you've heard of certain horror films about Werewolves, haven't you?" I nodded my understanding.

"Right, you and I are 'Hunters in Darkness'. As our tribe name might suggest, we are hunters, assassins, ninjas, scouts and the like. Sarah has the advantage of being very single minded on this front – both her tribe and her auspice reflect similar goals, so she can focus on them without many other worries. There are 'Blood Talons', who are the traditional ones that you hear about in works of fiction. These guys really are the incarnation of the Big Bad Wolf, who will blow down the three little pigs' houses, eat them alive and still be hungry for more. Then again, they are more than that. They are our best warriors. With their ferocity comes great skill and prowess on the fields of war."

"So in short, don't piss them off?" Our travels started to take us up a country track, where John climbed over the gate and observed, as I climbed one step up and jumped over deftly.

"You've done that before, haven't you?" He started plodding across the field.

"Living on a farm has a few perks, I'm sure. So, what are these other two tribes then?"

"Iron Masters and Storm Lords, Gareth. The Iron Masters spend their days closer to the human herd than most other werewolves, but it is necessary for them to – they try to integrate and keep up appearances, rather than allowing us to be discovered, which would be devastating for us and would almost certainly mean an imbalance in the world. I suppose what they don't know can't hurt them. The Storm Lords are the traditional leaders – they believe that they should lead all werewolves by birthright alone. Skill should have a lot to play in it, but even those that don't really possess much try to lead their packs."

"So we've got dictators and human sympathisers?"

"Both of these expressions are too extreme for most of the tribe members, but it serves as a very loose generalisation. Now, on to the auspices, because the moon affects us like some people believe star signs do."

"So it's got something to do with which month they were born under?" Walking across unfamiliar routes was beginning to cause unnecessary wear and tear on my brain.

"Close, but no cigar, my young friend. As a sweeping generalisation, the more of Luna's light that bathes you when you first change, the more rage your soul will have. You might have noticed that over the past few weeks, or even months, it's been difficult for you to talk to people – they seem a little nervous around you and you are quicker to lose your rag at anything." I considered this and a few scenarios leapt into my mind. I nodded, solemnly.

"Well, you're one of the luckier ones. The more of Luna's light that shines upon you, the more of a window through to your soul is created – and with that, the rage that burns within us all. Such is the way of the warrior." I stopped in my tracks, completely lost.

"I think you just lost me there, John." I scratched my unshaven chin and tried to work out why I had been chosen as a warrior, considering my lack of physical prowess.

"Look, every single werewolf on this planet is here for one reason. We fight to maintain the balance between the light and the shadow. Places can be too good to be true, after all."

I started walking again to catch up with the traveller. "So what have I got to fight? Evil spirits, vampires, other werewolves?"

"Who's to know? You might find that you're closer to the truth than you wanted to be with that little quip. Human imagination is given far too much credit in modern society. The Cahalith have told tales that aid the sceptical minds, especially when dressed up as a cutting edge piece of fiction."

"I don't know what to believe anymore." I shook my head, finally reaching a point of too much information and trying to comprehend it all.

"Well, the first thing to do is believe me. I'm here, I'm being honest with you and I'm helping you." He turned and smiled at me, walking backwards and holding his hands wide apart, as if a personal messiah.

"How do I know I can trust you?" I raised an eyebrow, suspiciously.

"Well, you've done alright so far, haven't you? We've shown you things about yourself that you didn't know when you went to work this morning. We've also shown you that we are capable of this as well. As far as I can tell, you trust me a little, since I'm one of the people who looks like he's going to give you some answers."

"As far as I can tell, it doesn't look like I've got much of a choice!" My voice got louder and I bunched my fists, getting agitated by the goings on.

A smile flashed across the face of John. "Yeah, that's the aggression I was on about. Why not put it to good use?" Slowly, the anger drained away from me and my fists uncurled themselves. Shaking from the adrenaline, I looked him square in the eye and walked up closer to him.

"You realise how scared I am about all of this stuff you're telling me?!"

"Of course I do – we all got scared when the first change happened. Try to think about what I said and if you've got any questions, ask. I'll tell you what I know." He offered his hand to me, which I regarded for some time, before finally shaking.

Our journey restarted and we moved across open countryside, crossing fields, roads and the occasional garden. Over the course of the next few hours, little was said about werewolf society and the few facts that I had garnered were allowed to settle into my mind. Citing that hunting in broad daylight was too dangerous to conduct at this stage, Michael led me across the plains and into the English countryside.

Days rolled by and I started to become more sure of myself and what I had been all along, although this did pose some interesting questions, which Michael did take the time to answer, much to his credit.

"So, did my parents know that I was a werewolf?" John leant up against a tree, picking a clod of dirt from his boot tread and curled his lower lip.

"I doubt that they did, otherwise they'd have probably done something to help you get to know what you are. I've still got stuff to teach you yet, but that can wait a little while – you've had a long day and I don't feel like wasting my breath.

I started to live a double life – on one side of the coin, I was a postman, now based in Rushwick. This little village to the west of the city was just what I was looking for, as it was quiet, with plentiful fields extending away to the north, south and west and the city in the east. The flip side of the coin being that I was a werewolf meant that city life was now something that I shied away from even more, heeding the advice of Michael that cities can be a dangerous place, though once I was part of a pack, I'd soon be more confident about travel in there.

Working the early morning shifts, I either spent late nights out or the most of the day under Michael's tutelage and I soon got to know the local area and a particularly fine spot for hunting larger prey than just rabbits. I learned quite quickly that Badger is an acquired taste and not one that I eagerly indulge in any more.

"I can't believe that you're keeping this place tidy, Gareth." John declared as he put the box of lager cans on the coffee table, slumped on the sofa and started to drain a can.

"Sometimes I can't quite fathom it either. Why do I let messy buggers like you in anyway?" I grabbed a can and sat on the chair across from him, taking a pull from the can.

"Now, we've to take another step in your learning curve. You've been moved away from your former life and now it's time to get you a little more settled in the new one." He belched loudly and sat up, dropping his empty on the table. "I've given you enough time to learn about the tribes and even meet a few of them. Now it's time to learn about how we're all governed by Mother Luna and how she brought forth the wolf in us." I sat there, putting my can down on the floor, as a clear head was certainly required to take on important information.

"Each phase of the moon has an auspice and generally, most werewolves act according to this mind-set. Starting with the new moon, we have the Irakka. The werewolves born under this auspice are ones that use the shadows to their greatest benefit – scouts and assassins are among their number. Don't be fooled though, as that's not their only job. Irakka can use their abilities to make sure that the werewolves in their pack do what they should be doing, both by their tribe and by their auspice." John pulled up his sleeve and showed off a nasty bite mark on his upper bicep and shoulder. "This was from one Irakka when I refused to take a bone-headed Rahu across the gauntlet." I sat there wide eyed at the size of the marks that had been torn through John's shoulder.

"We are children of the crescent moon. Both you and I are Ithaeur, the spiritual werewolves. Our path lies along that of the gauntlet and the balance between the two worlds. We lead the rites and commune with the spirits of the world, using the insight gained to help us every way possible. Strength does not just come from the claws and the bite – we have other means to win the fights that we engage in." I smiled at this, knowing that Mother Luna had blessed me well to this end.

"There are those of us who stand half in both the darkness and the light from Mother Luna. The Elodoth have a keen insight into the balance of the world. If there is a dispute between pack members, the first port of call is that of the Elodoth, as their skills lie within mediation and seeing both sides of the story. They are highly skilled at bartering and all sorts of negotiation, so you would do well not to try and argue with them."

"I thought that this was the case for all of the Uratha I met." I smirked at John, over my can.

"Yes, but while a Rahu in a bad mood might reach over to you and land a strong blow across your chin, the scars you receive from losing a heated debate to an Elodoth are probably the hardest to bear. They see a lot, more even than we do. But they have their uses, as they work well with the spirits also." I nodded at this, remembering the times I had spent with John in the Hisil over the past few months, hunting down and then talking to certain spirits. If what he said was true, I really could have used the help of an Elodoth.

"When the gibbous moon rides the sky, Mother Luna turns her attention to the Cahalith. Story tellers, bards and musicians all claim membership among this number. Don't be quick to judge though, as they are emotional characters, generally speaking. Watch out if you're about to insult them, as they can be prone to violent mood swings."

"Sounds like most of the women I've ever met then. I stood up and picked up a few empty cans, not wanting any dregs of lager to soak into the carpet.

"Only much worse. I've not met the same women you have, but I get the feeling that these women couldn't try to beat you to death with a washing machine, for example." I stopped halfway to a can and stared at John, dumbfounded. "Yeah, an old acquaintance of mine hit a younger Uratha, when he asked him if he knew how to use one, since he didn't smell like he did."

"Finally, we come to the Rahu. Your typical fierce beast of a man, who probably made his living doing something incredibly physical, before the first change. Short on temper, but when it comes to a fight, they can be the most reserved, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike at their opponents. If you ever fight with other werewolves and you suspect a Rahu is among them, you would do well not to show all of your tricks too soon."

"So, if these are all of the people on my side, what about the ones who aren't" I threw some empty cans into the bin in the kitchen and John followed me. Clapping a friendly arm around my shoulder, he declared "If we sat here talking about them, I'd be dead before we'd even gotten half way. Face it, there aren't many people on your side, but you'll soon be ready to have a pack of your own. These friends of yours will be your best connection to what we fight for and also your greatest allies during this fight. Now you may find other like-minded folk, but there will be none that you can trust more than your own pack. Do you understand?" I nodded, solemnly.

"Good. I'll be out of town for a few days. I've had a call from my pack and once we've dealt with our business, I can teach you some more." He slipped on his baseball cap and strode out of the house. Once he had left, his words started to sink in and, for the first time in my life, I felt truly alone.

A few months passed and John Jackson's visits to my pad in Rushwick became more infrequent. He was pleased to see that I'd managed to set up my own little niche in the village and that I was settling in to a routine. Then, one morning, I heard a car pull up outside and signal it's horn. Checking at the window, I recognised John sitting behind the wheel. I locked up and headed over to the car.

"I've got one last thing to do, Gareth. We're going to Worcester, to meet your new pack." I duly got in and sat quietly, as he drove us there. It was strange, but I couldn't help but wonder if this was the last time that I would see John Jackson, the man who had given up over 10 months of his life to acclimatise me into the land of werewolves and the strange new life that I had been chosen for. Sub consciously, I slipped my hand inside my jacket pocket and clutched the case containing my brother's posthumous medal from the Kosovo conflict.

We pulled up outside a pub on the main drag, called The Red Dragon. As I got out of the car, John leaded across to me and said "Hey, if you need to speak to me, you've still got my number and if that fails, speak to someone on the other side of the gauntlet – they'll be able to find me!"

"Thanks John, I guess I'll speak to you in a few days then." He laughed dryly, as I shook his hand warmly and then turned my back, walking into the tavern.

"It's time to go and face up to who I am." I declared to myself, opening the door and stepping into The Red Dragon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Into The Darkness**

**Chapter 1**

I walked into the Red Dragon, which was mostly empty. For a mid-week afternoon, I wasn't really all that surprised. An old man propped up the bar, while a young couple sat in the window and an athletic looking young man looked quite pensively around the room, his pint of water not spending too long on the table between sips. A drink would settle my nerves, I thought, as I walked up to the bar.

"Ah, you must be Michael's lad," said the barman, in a friendly, knowing way. "I'm Tim, the owner of this fine establishment and you're very welcome here, friend. Would you like a drink?" I looked along the bar and spotted a Welsh Ale on tap.

"Pleased to meet you, Tim. They call me Gareth. What have you got on tap today?"

"Well, that accent sounds like it's from across the river. I bet you'd be after one of the brews from the heads of the valleys. We have a particularly fine one in at the moment," he proudly declared, tapping his hand on a tap adorned with a Welsh Dragon and some hops.

"A pint of Llangeddog then if you'd be so kind, Tim." I smiled nervously, as he pulled the pint and I fumbled in my pocket for some cash.

"I thought you would, when Michael told me about you, to be honest. One pint of Langedog coming up!" As he pulled the pint, I leant across the bar closer to him and lowered my voice slightly.

"It's pronounced 'Llangeddog', friend. The double L makes the sound like a 'cl' and the double D makes a sound like a 'th' Tim looked a little confused by this, but made a fair stab at pronouncing the name of the brew.

"You're pretty good at that. Have you ever been to Wales?" Tim put the full pint on the bar and smiled.

"I've never been, but I've watched a bit of TV. Now, would you like something to eat with that?" I sipped the pint of dark ale and thought for a few seconds. It wasn't long since I'd had lunch, but I could already feel the pangs of hunger starting to nag me.

"What have you got?"

"Well, we've got the restaurant around the back, but I can get a plate of something from there brought around. Roast lamb?"

"Sounds good to me. So, you know why I'm here then, if you've spoken to Michael?" Tim smiled and mopped up a spill on the bar.

"Yes, I do. You're here to meet your pack mates, kid. One of 'em is sitting at the table over there." He pointed toward the athletic young man, who waved back. I'll bring your food over when it's ready." I turned to the bar, picking up my pint again.

"So, how much do I owe you?" I reached in my pocket and pulled out a pile of change.

"Don't worry. This one's on the house, Gareth." Somewhat surprised by this, I thanked Tim for his hospitality and walked over to the man, designated as one of my pack mates. He kicked a chair out for me to sit on and looked at me nervously.

"Are you who I think you are? From what Tim said, you probably are." I sat down, while he said this to me, trying not to look so timid. The whole effect was quite funny, for someone who happened to be big and look so strong, to be only physically so, on first impressions.

"Who do you think I am, friend?" I sat down and took another pull of my drink. My own nerves were somewhat lessened by seeing somebody that was as apprehensive as I had been in the short car journey.

"Are you one of the new pack?" He took a large gulp of his pint of water and this seemed to calm him down a little.

"Yes." That one word seemed to unload a mountain of tension off of his back and he relaxed amazingly.

"Hello then. I'm Harvey." He reached out one of his massive hands to shake with me and the shake was decidedly firm. I tried, but failed miserably to match the power of this grip.

"Nice to meet you, Harvey, I'm Gareth. Have you been here long?"

"About half an hour, so far. Did your friends tell you how many to expect?"

"You know, I never thought about that, but if I'm being honest, I think that Tim might know." Harvey nodded and drank some more. With that, the door opened and in walked a young lady, wearing a tight white top and form fitting black jeans. She carried a violin case and her shaven head made her look quite out of place in a bar like this.

"Isn't that Nadia Elise, the rock star?" Harvey asked, quietly.

"I wouldn't know, to be honest, Harvey. I tend to listen to Radio 4 mostly." After a quick chat with Tim, she came walking over to the pair of us and grabbed a seat at the table.

"Hi, I'm Nadia. From what the bar man says, you're here for the same reason that I am." She smiled pleasantly at the pair of us, placing her drink on the table. Harvey looked quite impressed to be in the presence of this girl who I had never heard of.

"Hello, I'm Gareth. This is… Harvey, wasn't it?" I looked at Harvey, who eventually snapped out of it and gathered himself slightly.

"Yes, yes it still is. Do you know how many other people we are expecting, Nadia?" She shook her head and we descended into some conversation about how long we'd been in the area, what we did before our lives had changed and other such pleasantries.

Harvey had been a student athlete. He had been training at Loughborough University and was competing in some in-house races, arranged by the University. Apparently, the first change had crushed his dreams of becoming an Olympic champion, but over his time with the Blood Talons, he had learned to direct his anger in productive ways, saving the rage for when it was most needed.

Nadia, on the other hand was a professional rock star. She was a virtuoso with the violin and not a bad singer, from what I could tell. Her first change at the end of one of her concerts must have scared the life out of her, although rather than seeing her dreams crushed by this, she sees it as a benefit to be able to sustain higher notes for longer, when she sings.

It made my life sound quite mundane. Just a Welshman from a farm in the hills, who moved away because he fell out with his parents. Now working as a postman in the suburbs of Worcester, this life doesn't seem very glamorous at all.

I downed the last of my pint and looked to my two companions. "Well, I'll go and ask Tim if he knows how many to expect. Since he knew me by name when I walked in, he probably has some ideas. Anyone for another drink at all?" Harvey lifted his glass towards me "Just water please." I turned to see Nadia sinking her pint and was passed a third pint glass. "Surprise me, I trust you." I walked to the bar, deposited the glasses and beat a hasty path to the gents.

When I returned to the bar, I ordered a round of drinks from Tim and checked to see if we'd acquired any more pack mates, while I had been away. It seemed that Harvey and Nadia were settling down to becoming at least well acquainted with each other. Tim placed my pint in front of me and started to pour a second pint of the Welsh bitter that I had enjoyed.

"Tim, you seem to know us all enough for you to get by. Um… how many more are we expecting?" He smiled at me and pulled the pump again

"Well, you'll know when you've got a pack together, as an Elder will come along and talk to you all about what he wants you to do." As he put down the second pint, he pulled another glass from under the bar and checked it for cleanliness. "And if you have to ask me how you'll know if he's an Elder, you're not as good as some people say you are." I smiled at him, slightly stunned by that sentiment. When he brought back the pint of water, I reached for my wallet, which caused Tim to clear his throat and shake his head, while smiling pleasantly at me.

"Not today, Gareth. You are our guest, remember?" He folded his arms across his broad chest, still smiling at me. I picked up the three glasses and started to move away

"Okay, but I don't like leaving debt unpaid. Makes me edgy, it does." Tim roared with laughter at this and I returned to the table with the drinks.

"It seems you've struck up quite a rapport with the barman, Gareth." Nadia noted, as I slipped back into my seat.

"Well, he knows how many more are due, but wouldn't let on. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Besides, lunch will be here soon." I smiled at Nadia, as another few patrons walked in. One of their number looked a little lost and was greeted with a similar manner that I had received earlier. Turning my attention away from my new found friends, I chuckled as I heard Tim remark "You'll fit right in with this lot – none of them like a drink, to be honest."

"Ah, I think we've acquired another member." I leant across to an empty table and pulled a chair across to make the number of seats up to four.

"Are you the group that the bar man means? I'm Tanith." The girl standing before us was short and slightly built. Her dark hair wound up in a bun and peering over a small pair of glasses, she looked quite official and I started to feel underdressed. I gestured to the chair, as Harvey lead the way with the introductions.

"Hi Tanith, I'm Harvey and this is Gareth and," he paused, searching his mind for the answer.

"And Nadia," she continued from Harvey. "If this is going to be most of us, why don't we go more in depth with the introductions?" I shrugged and waited for one of us to carry on, not quite sure what else there was to say.

"I'm a Blood Talon!" Harvey proudly declared, beating his right fist against his chest with authoritative pride. "I was born under the full moon and have been with the Talons ever since."

Rubbing her nose, Nadia looked at all of us in turn and then informed us "I am a Cahalith of the Storm Lords. We fight for honour and justice." Taking my turn in my stride, I chimed in that "I'm an Ithaeur of the Hunters in Darkness. I prefer to fight by other means than just toe-to-toe." This drew a snigger from Harvey and I turned to him. "Perhaps I'll get to show you at some point." I flashed him a wry grin, which Harvey returned with a look of mock worry.

Seeking to diffuse a situation which could have gone badly, Tanith threw her hat into the ring and declared "I too am a Cahalith, the same as Nadia. I represent the Iron Masters, but as one pack, we will not allow our tribal differences to cause us any difficulties, I am sure." I nodded at this, happy to have some friends for once in the city that had been foreign ground to me only this morning.

We got chatting for a while and Tim brought over some food, which we dug into readily. Since my first change, I had noticed that my appetite had become quite voracious. To join up with Harvey's physical prowess and Nadia's musical talents, we had my new skills with the spirits and now Tanith's career as an investigative journalist to draw on for assistance with pack matters. Just as Nadia was returning to the table with another round of drinks, there was a cold draught and it felt to me as if someone had walked across my grave. I tried to suppress the shudder as it ran the length of my spine and I looked quizzically at my pack mates, as most of the tavern had gone quiet.

A late middle-age, possibly even old man, dressed almost like a Goth – massive black boots, dark jeans and a floor length leather coat strode slowly into the pub. His long white hair and close clipped white beard made him look quite prophetic, in a menacing sort of way. He nodded his head towards Tim, who nodded and smiled back, the only person not to stop what they were doing, when he walked in. The man turned towards our table and strode slowly over.

"_Just stay calm and don't do or say anything stupid, Gareth"_ I thought to myself, fearful of making myself look the prize idiot in front of who was probably a very powerful Elder Werewolf. As the figure stood by the table, Tanith and Harvey turned to face him, with me left to look around one of Harvey's massive shoulders.

"Good afternoon." He cast his gaze around the pack, looking over each of us one by one, with his appraising stare, almost as if he were judging our suitability just by the look in our eyes. Briefly, his eyes met mine and then I found a spot slightly to the left of his face to focus on, as I found that his piercing stare was quite intimidating.

"Welcome to your new pack. I am glad to see that the tribes have contributed a good showing of potential. Let's hope that this potential reaps rewards, shall we?" Almost in unison, we nodded, like obedient Victorian schoolchildren.

"We have chosen to test you with a challenging, but not impossible task. You four will go the village of Powick, to the south. There is a disused Hospital, which was used for treatment of the insane and infirm. This is quite a beacon in the Hisil, as I am sure you will be able to determine." He looked straight at me and I felt that feeling as if someone was walking across my grave once more. He held my gaze for what seemed like an eternity and I could not do so much as blink.

"Be wary, there are several groups who would seek to stake a claim to this place of power, not least of all the Pure." He spat the word into the floor, baring his teeth. "I am sure that you have the resources you require to get started. Any questions?"

"When do we start this 'test'?" Nadia was the only one of us sure enough to question the Elder. I however was stupid enough to try to break the ice. I looked at the pint glass in my hand as I wet my whistle again

"How about as soon as we have finished my pint?" As I put the glass on the table, I watched in horror as the man turned around toward me in a flash and growled. Before my eyes, I saw the remaining half pint of beer freeze into one solid lump. I stared at it in fearful awe. "I guess I'm good to go now." The man looked at us all again and returned to the bar, where he conversed with Tim for a short while, before sweeping out of the room as suddenly as he had entered.

"_Nice going, idiot."_ I chastised myself in the fashion that Iwan, my brother, always used to when something went wrong for the two of us on the farm. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, irritably.

"Does anyone know where this Powick is?" Nadia questioned the group at large; drawing shakes of the head from both Harvey and Tanith.

"I've been there once or twice on my rounds. I've not seen a Hospital around there, but I'm not sure I've been all over the area yet."

"Well, I can try and find something else out about the history of this place. We might find out something about what we're up against before we go in there." Tanith picked up her bag and tapped it gently, as if there was something very fragile in there. Harvey smiled at this.

"It looks like you came prepared. We should be able to get internet access in a Library, if there's one nearby. Gareth, do you know of one?" I shook my head, not knowing my way around the city centre much at all.

"There might be one at the college – we drove in past there today." This got a few affirming nods and so we appeared to make a decision. Drinks were finished, coats were grabbed and we stood to leave. I thanked Tim for his hospitality and we left the pub, as one. Tanith had come in her car, so volunteered to drive, none of the rest of us having access to a vehicle.

A short drive later, we arrived at the college, where we headed for the library and set up camp at one of the study desks. Harvey and Tanith set about setting up their computers, while I went and searched for some local maps and Nadia went looking for information on the past of Powick Hospital.

About an hour later, we decided that we have the information required and sat down for a brainstorm. Tanith, with her journalistic talents took notes on her laptop as we discussed our findings.

"According to this book, the hospital was working for over a hundred years." Nadia flicked through her bookmarks in a local history tome. "Apparently, they used 'psychedelic psychotherapy', whatever that is, from 1952 until sometime in the early 70s."

"Well, I've found the way there – it looks pretty isolated. You've got the village itself, and then the hospital is a little further away. Is there any way we can find out who owns the land? You might be looking at some sort of developer that wants to tear the place down, which wouldn't do us a lot of good, I'm sure."

"Good point, Gareth." Tanith clicked and tapped behind her screen for a while and then got up and excused herself from the table.

"I've just found that it was a place where they sent not only mentally infirm people, but women who had children out of wedlock, women who were adulteresses and other similar cases who were mentally sound by today's standards upon entry to the asylum." Harvey pushed a printout across the table to me and Nadia and we read what he had found:

"_The Worcester County Asylum (Powick Asylum) in the village of__Powick opened in 1854. Patient admissions were sequentially__recorded in large leather-bound ledgers. Initially both males__and females were recorded in the same book, but subsequently__males and females were recorded separately. All ledgers available were examined and those children aged 16 and under on admission__were identified. This age was taken as the cut-off to allow__comparison with contemporary child and adolescent services.__Dates of birth were never recorded in the case notes, only__the patient's age in years._

_The hospital ledgers relating to the years 1864-1867 and 1872-1876__are missing."_

"Well, that's not exactly what we thought we'd be up against." Nadia put down the piece of paper and slumped back in her chair in thought. "I wonder if this has anything to do with the power there." Tanith walked back in and sat back with us

"I've just had a chat with a few friends – apparently, the hospital and the grounds were sold at auction about eighteen months ago. Some builders were interested in it, for the development potential, but a holding company run by a few Iron Masters got in there and snuffed that out for now."

"So, does that mean that we've got carte blanche? What's the security like there?" Harvey was interested in the place again, despite his troubling findings.

"I think it's pretty deserted, so why not go and have a look now?" Tanith seemed quite upbeat, until I passed the printout to her and she took on board the details. "Oh."

"Well, we probably won't be able to take control of this place in one visit, so let's go and have a scout around to see what we're actually trying to work with." Taking what information we had gathered, we returned to Tanith's car and drove to Powick.

In the cool sunshine of the mid afternoon, we drove up a country lane towards what looked like a dilapidated stately home. The windows had been boarded up and there was no sign that the gardens had been tended for some time now. Tanith parked her car next to three cottages in a similar state of disrepair and the four of us got out to have a closer look.

"If this place is owned by the Iron Masters, we can just go in, can't we?" I looked around the cottages, seeing if there was any sign that someone had beaten us to the punch.

"I think so. How are we going to get in? These boards look pretty strong." Tanith looked slightly crestfallen at the prospect of having to drive all the way to Worcester to get the tools required for the job of breaking into what was essentially our own home.

"I can deal with this." Harvey strode carefully and purposefully over to the doorway, now boarded over with a sheet of chipboard. Breathing deeply, his form grew taller and muscles expanded across his back and shoulders, rippling impressively underneath his now very tight T-Shirt. He crouched down and took a grip on a loose edge of the board. Using the improved leverage from his Dalu form, he pulled the sheet of wood away from the door as a human would pull a sheet of paper from a pad. After a few short moments, he had forced the door, the rotting wood of the frame offering little resistance and we entered the musty cottage.

The surroundings were strangely familiar, we had entered the hallway and after a few paces, I found myself in the kitchen, which was surprisingly still furnished. I sat down at the kitchen table and looked around, before closing my right eye, allowing me to see what else is there, across the gauntlet. It reminded me of when John Jackson showed me this, some time ago:

_The air was cool and I stood on a hillside with my mentor. The chill in the air caused my breath to project small clouds in front of me._

"_Right, this is a suitable place – reasonably calm, nice evening out, that sort of thing. I want you to empty your mind of all thought and close one eye. Do not let yourself focus this eye. You will know when it works."_

_As I looked into the mid distance, I closed one eye and tried not to think. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds and it took me what seemed like an age. My vision started to blur, as if tears were welling up across my eye and I blinked. In that spilt second, the sky went dark and it was as if I had stepped through the gauntlet, without actually moving. I saw the spirits of a few birds and a rabbit in the distance as I sat up._

"_Try opening both eyes now. Use your eyes on both sides, Gareth." I removed my hand from my right eye and opened it, gazing upon the 'real world'. The result was hugely disorientating, I tried to pay attention to what was happening in both the human and spirit realms – similar to looking at the world in two colour schemes, like a pair of Warhol prints. "It will take a while to get used to it, but I find it works best when standing still. You can look before you leap – rather than jumping through the gauntlet into what could be an extremely hostile situation."_

"_Does it work in the Hisil as well? Can I use it to look at from there to here?"_

"_Yes, you can see either way, but it only works for sight… Oh, and what you see won't always be this pleasant." He smiled and walked off, forcing me to make the vision fade and move after him._

As my eye watered and I looked slowly around the room, I saw a slightly twisted version of the kitchen that I sat in. The layout was the same as this place, but the vision I saw was of warped furniture that didn't look like it could possibly balance itself under normal forces.

"This place is not quite right. Something is wrong, like it has become tainted."

"What do you mean, Gareth? I can't see anything wrong with it, aside from the windows being boarded up and the smell of old." Nadia poked around some of the cupboards almost in distaste.

"Not here, in the Hisil." I cleared my vision again, focussing on my pack mates and explained to them how changes on this side of the gauntlet can have an effect on the Hisil and vice-versa. "This might be what we've been sent here to sort out. Perhaps we were destined to set this place straight, along with the hospital?"

"I'd rather sort the hospital first." Harvey declared. "Doesn't seem right to put the welcome mat out until the place is sorted. Maybe that would help the disturbance here?"

"Right, shall we go and have a look there then, or should we carry on around here – perhaps we'll find something that might be useful, like an old diary or something?" Tanith was looking through the drawers, in case of any little clues that could prove invaluable to our cause."

"I can see the merit in it, but I don't feel entirely comfortable here at the moment." I wiped the sweat from my brow as I felt the chill run up my spine. Tanith walked over, pulling a bottle of Jim Beam from her bag and placed it on the table in front of me.

"You are going to need a drink then. If this is spirits, we will need to have you on some form, since you're the expert on that, Mr. Ithaeur." I cracked the seal and took a long pull at the bottle.

"Give me a minute or two, you can go ahead and look around the rest of the rooms, if you want." I passed the bottle back to Tanith and sat there, thinking how this sort of change could occur in the Hisil. After a short while, they returned to the kitchen – only Tanith had found anything of interest – a scrap book, containing Newspaper excerpts detailing alleged corruption and malpractice in the hospital. Most people appeared to have dismissed this as paper talk from slow news days.

Harvey clapped me on the shoulder "Come on Gareth, you're looking a little less pale now, let's go and see the hospital." I stood up and we left the first of the cottages, vowing to return at some point. We walked across a slightly overgrown meadow towards a large and imposing building – the main part looking like a Stately Home, with a grand entrance. Four large windows on either side of large and impressive doors adorned the main frontage and this building climbed five storeys out of the Worcestershire countryside. Either side of this main building, there were annexe wings, which were smaller, but no less impressive. One could only imagine as to the size of the grounds beyond.

"Should we go through into the Hisil, or should we stay here?" Someone was bound to ask the question, so I thought I should be the one asking this time.

"Well, if you think the disturbance is there, we should cross into the Hisil, I think." Nadia appeared to have made the decision for us, so we prepared to make the trip. Harvey cast a menacing shadow as his form changed to the mighty Urshul, or almost wolf form. I chose my Dalu, or near-man form, in order to better fend off any enemies that might be there, but at the same time, retain enough humanoid shape to hold conversations, as required. The ladies both remained in their humanoid shape, choosing to be ready for conversation, over combat.

I lead us across into the spirit world, where the darkness came to life. Ethereal figures were milling around in front of the building, apparently devoid of purpose. As one, we slowly walked down the drive, the crisp crunching of gravel underfoot, taking our time to observe the spirits, for any signs of the disturbances that this area had.

"Look! Over there!" Harvey exclaimed and pointed at a patch of ground in front of the one wing of the building. Barely perceptible, there appeared to be something attempting to break through from under the turf. The very thought of what this could be made my skin crawl. I tried to suppress my fear of what might spring forth. Slowly, a white, ghostly hand poked its way through the sod and the form of a small child crawled forth. I felt sickened by this, as my mind reached conclusions about child abuse and stories like that of Fred West haunted my mind.

"It looks like an infant. Shall I try to talk to it?" Harvey directed his question to me, as I was officially his 'spiritual expert'.

"I don't think you'll get much sense out of it, Harvey. Perhaps it has a mother, who was a patient here?" I turned around to see Nadia standing close to one of the female spirits, listening intently. I wandered over to her and caught the latter part of the spirit's garbled musings.

"My babies. Took my babies from me, hid them away. Mommy is a good mommy." I cast a sidelong glance toward Nadia, who gestured toward the apparition, as if to say that this was my forte and I should do something. I shrugged, but still stepped forward and addressed the ghostly figure.

"Can I help you, my dear? Have you lost something?" The figure turned towards me, looking through me, as if noticing me for the first time, but looking at some other part of me.

"My babies. They took my babies. Have you seen my babies?!" If she were capable of doing so, I was certain that she would have grabbed at my T-Shirt. I pointed past Nadia to where Harvey and Tanith were regarding the baby spirits that were crawling out of the ground before them.

"There are some babies over there. Perhaps some of them are yours?" I offered in hope. The spirit regarded the scene and became very emotional.

"Babies? My babies? GIVE ME MY BABIES!" The spirit charged across the grounds, partly passing through me and suddenly finding part of me that would resist, so she pushed me to one side. This shocked me and I was only able to shout a quick "Look out!" to my pack mates, who were in its path.

Harvey turned around to see what all of the fuss was about and was summarily shoved aside, as the creature bent over the infant spirits and started to pick them up, still jabbering about her babies. After holding the first one for a few seconds, the jaw dropped and she started pushing the spirit of the baby down its throat. Emboldened by this act, it pulled more spirits from the ground and feasted on them. The spirit seemed to grow with each infant shovelled mercilessly into the gaping maw.

"This isn't good!" Nadia declared as the understatement of the year and she ran at the thing. Harvey recovered himself enough to lunge in, a blur of malicious claws and teeth. Setting his huge jaw around the spirit's forearm, he ripped a chunk from the beast, casting it to one side. Recoiling away from the horrible taste and smell, he retched. Nadia was latched onto the spirit's back and was doing her best to stay on, as it thrashed about. I ran at it, preparing a swipe, but was too slow for the frenzied attack and ran past, without as much as passing contact.

Harvey, still the worse for wear after his grisly meal, turned and let out a mighty roar, his size increasing once more. The awesome sight of another werewolf in Gauru form, unleashing the beast within was somewhat chilling, but the result as Harvey ran back in was that my resolve was doubled.

Tanith stared at the monstrous visage, a spark of recognition on her face, as Harvey continued his assault and Nadia clung onto the thing's back for grim death.

"Meredith Chalmers! That is your name, isn't it?" Tanith's line of questioning caught us all by surprise, as I ran in for another pass and missed once more with flailing arms. The screaming stopped and the beast turned to look at Tanith, growing visibly smaller. Nadia dropped down from her back, as the spirit slowly regained the form of an early Victorian woman, wearing a dirty dress and shawl. The remaining infant spirits retreated and Nadia ushered them away. Harvey, visibly shaken for his experiences, came to terms with the taste in his mouth and retreated to a bush, where he had a quiet moment with his thoughts.

"How do you know my name, Ma'am?"

"I am good with names. I recognised you from one of the photographs inside the hospital." This seemed to satisfy the spirit and I shifted back to my human self, before walking towards the spirit.

"Forgot… forgot us all. Nameless ones. Trapped." The spirit of Meredith Chalmers faded and blended into the Hisil, now free from her ethereal prison.

"What on earth was that about?" Nadia said, walking over to us and shooting me a filthy look.

"What? What did I do?"

"There are some babies over there, perhaps some of them are yours?" Nadia's voice became a cruel mockery of my own accent and she scowled at me again.

"I only did what I thought was right. I didn't see you coming up with anything better, did I?"

"But this is supposed to be your area of expertise. You are Ithaeur, after all." I scoffed at this one and rounded on my pack mate.

"Look, I have only recently been shown how things happen in the Hisil. You may as well expect you to be able to compose a sonnet, for all that your argument matters. You cannot be ready for every eventuality and you must learn from your own experiences. None of us knew what we were expected to face here and speaking of which, how did you know her name was Meredith Chalmers, Tanith?"

"I've always had a gift for names, Mr. Dempsey. I just look at people and their names can spring into my head. It doesn't always work, but this time I was right."

"It would take us a long time to do this for the whole place, wouldn't it?" Harvey returned to us, back in his Urshul form, a clear head and shoulders above us.

"Are you ok?" We all looked at Harvey, who seemed to have recovered his strength. Tanith reached in her bag and pulled out a bottle of Jim Beam, before offering it to Harvey. He shook his head and as she was putting it away, I took it and treated myself to a good pull from the bottle.

"Where next?" Tanith queried, as she fastened her bag. As one, we looked straight at the huge, menacing doors of the dilapidated hospital.

"If it's all the same to you guys, I think I've had enough of the Hisil for one night. Kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Harvey declared.

"I offered you the Jim Beam, you turned it down." Tanith and Harvey exchanged glances and a wry smile, as I looked around for a way back across the gauntlet.

"I guess that from experience that we don't talk to the spirits unless we need to. There's a locus over by the doors, so we should be able to get back there." I walked towards what looked like a patch of light in amongst the darkness, I reached out my hands and touched the surface of this strange, almost liquid like puddle, suspended in mid air. I reached back with my right hand and grabbed Tanith's wrist, directing her in the direction of the material realm. She slowly stepped forward, through the light and faded from view. I beckoned Nadia and Harvey to follow and I showed them the way back, before crossing the gauntlet myself. Once again, the light of day greeted us, as did the cool air of the winter landscape.

"Welcome back. Right, what are we going to do now?" Tanith greeted me as I came through and looked expectantly at the rest of the pack. Nadia turned her attention to the doors and looked back at us, shrugging.

"Did anyone bring a crowbar?" I asked, considering the size of the boards that had been built up over the massive doors. "I know you managed the cottage doors a while ago, but these look quite a bit bigger than those…" Harvey walked off towards the doors and started sizing up where he could get a good enough grip.

Systematically, he pulled a few planks off the doorway, allowing him access to the massive chipboard panels that had been fixed straight into the door frame. In his more muscular form of a Hishu or near human, he used the extra leverage to pull the boards away from the door frame, creating an opening large enough for us to pass through the door. This left a huge oak door in our path, which Harvey tried the handle of, before barging unceremoniously through, the lock giving way with a squeal of shearing metal. We walked into the foyer and were greeted with the musty smell of a building that had not been visited by humans for the best part of twenty years. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, warning me that other beings stalked this place on the other side of the gauntlet. I resisted the temptation to look to the other side for now, since we were concerned with concentrating on this side of the gauntlet for today at least.

Nadia walked over to the reception desk, which looked overstocked with paperwork and rather dusty. She leafed through the paperwork, absent-mindedly, not really knowing what was being searched for.

I looked up the large, expansive staircase, leading to the higher levels of the building, while Harvey and Tanith considered the three doors on the ground floor – one left, one right and one behind the reception desk.

As I looked up, I saw a figure – a man, perhaps in his 30s, but aged beyond his years and sat in a wheelchair. Surely there would be no-one here now, with the hospital shut down and boarded up. As I was about to climb the stairs to investigate further, a woman in white, possibly a nurse walked up behind the figure and blatantly pushed the wheelchair down the stairs. As the man fell and tumbled down the stairs and I could only watch, helpless. I heard the thump of the body on the stairs and the clatter that the wheelchair made on the marble floor by my feet and I jumped aside. The smell of blood was all too familiar. I crouched down to the body, trying to check for a pulse, but then, the vision faded and I was kneeling down at the foot of the stairs, my two fingers searching for an imaginary pulse some six inches off the floor.

"Gareth, what the hell's wrong?" Tanith hurried over and helped me to my feet.

"You didn't see it?! I just watched a nurse push a man in a wheelchair down the stairs to his death. The wheelchair nearly bounced off me and I couldn't do anything for him – he was dead before he hit the floor." I was shaking and tears were starting, just like they had for my brother, Iwan. "He was a war hero! He was wearing his medals and everything and they just decided to push him down the stairs!" I turned from Tanith and slammed my bunched fist into the wall, leaving a great spider crack in the plaster.

"Some events must have been left unresolved. Perhaps they will be sorted if we find the names of those who were involved with this?" Harvey started looking around, anticipating that he might see an apparition, more than anything. Tanith walked over to the desk and looked for some records.

"I think that we're going to need to go somewhere else for this – files of this sensitivity aren't generally kept at the front desk." The colour returning to my cheeks, I nodded and took a deep breath to calm myself down, as Tanith opened the back door into what looked like an office. Doors off either side of this room lead to archives, which had a large number of filing cabinets. Tanith searched through some ledgers and looked up at the three of us. "This was one of the places where deserters from World War II were sent. Not just deserters, but victims of shell shock and other similar ailments. As if fighting in a war as bloody as the Second World War wasn't enough, they even sent some of the victims back here?!"

A good half an hour later and Tanith returned to us, while we had been searching through various ledgers of our own.

"It looks like you saw a vision of the past, Gareth. A soldier, S… I can't make out the rest of the name, it's been blacked out by someone who didn't want us reading about it, for one reason or another. Apparently, he had been treated here for some time and was so frail that he was confined to a wheelchair. One evening in December 1943, he fell down the stairs and died as a result of his injuries. Cause of death was a broken back at the age of just 28." I bowed my head upon hearing this piece of news, as Tanith continued. "The coroner signed the death off as accidental death, due to the subject being of unsound mind and incapable of rationalising suicide. That's awful."

"So, we're looking for a soldier that has a first name beginning with 'S', that was a patient here?" Harvey looked at me in particular in this case.

"If we do that, we will be here for years. I think that our best hope is to look at what we can from this side of the world and see if we can restore balance in the Hisil. Besides, it might just be the first letter of Soldier or Sergeant, for all we know…"

"I can answer that one, Gareth – his name was Sergeant Roger Young. He was decorated with the 1939-45 War Medal; the 1939-45 Star and the France and Germany Star. It says here that he was diagnosed with shell shock in August 1943, some four months before his death. Repatriated and shipped over to Powick, where he met his demise. We now have two names for our list." Nadia slammed the ledger shut and closed her notebook, smiling.

"I've got a few leads – some people who might actually still be around. Two doctors, a nurse, a receptionist and a janitor, all in all. We can look through the electoral register for them tomorrow and I'll see what I can dig up."

"Maybe there are some other people in the city that can help? Suppose we ask Tim, to see if he can give us any ideas for where to go?" I looked at my new friends, gauging their expressions, to see if we could agree to leave this place alone for a little while.

"But that's going back to the city." Nadia began

"And you'd like to stay here, where we don't really know what we're fighting against?" Tanith snapped. It was unusual to see one so reserved as her getting aggressive, but it proved that it was possible. Perhaps I had misjudged her. "I move we head back to Worcester for now.

"Alright then," I said, brightening up a little. "Pub, anyone?" Upon hearing this, Harvey walked back out the way he had come and held the door for everyone to leave. After we exited the building into the chilly early evening, he pushed the boards back into place, making it look as if no-one had ever been there. We all gathered into the car and made our way back through the lanes.

"Gareth, you've lived around here for a little while. What are those hills over there?" I followed Tanith's point and looked toward the horizon, the sunset framing one of the greatest areas of natural beauty in the area.

"That's the Malvern Hills – they're not bad, as hills go, but it's not as impressive as the hills back home. Perhaps we can go and have a look at some point. I've been there a couple of times, when I was with my mentor. It's quite calming there."

"That would be nice." I looked at the rear-view mirror and caught Tanith smiling sweetly at the prospect of something not involving our recent trip into the Hisil. "What do you think, Harvey, Nadia?"

"Looks like somewhere quiet where I can stretch my legs. I'd be up for that." Harvey's eyes lit up at the prospect of some running, away from prying eyes.

"We can work out some tactics there for if we get into a fight. Let's go now!" Nadia decided for us, starting to step into her role as Pack Alpha, which had in effect been bestowed upon her by the Storm Lord Elder that had met us a few hours previously. Tanith made a left turn and pointed the car in the direction of the hills.

A short while later, we pulled into a deserted car park. The last of the touring parties and employees had left the visitor centre in darkness, so the park was ours for the evening. I climbed up the fence and watched in amazement as Harvey cleared it in one jump. As I followed, heading up towards the hills themselves, Tanith shifted to her wolf form and dived between the planks of wood, joining us, while Nadia leisurely brought up the rear.

On top of one of the hills, a collection of rocks had been assembled together as an attraction for the tourists. Local youths had tried to make it their own at one point, but this was largely clear of rubbish and signs of mistreatment at present. Harvey and Tanith both raced to the top of these rocks for differing reasons – Harvey surveyed the landscape, while Tanith threw back her head and let out a long howl, standing atop the rock, waiting for a reply.

Nadia approached her two pack mates, pushing back her hood, exposing her short hair. "What do you see, Harvey?" She called up to him, as he scrambled down.

"It doesn't look like there is anything around here for miles, where humans are concerned. We might actually be alone, for a change."

"We're never truly alone. The spirits are around, at least." As I snapped out of a trance-like state from looking through the gauntlet, I walked back over to the group. "It seems like the spirits are in a much calmer state here." As I swigged from a bottle of booze that had been brought along, Tanith decided to jump on my back and flattened me. Rolling swiftly to my right, I tried to push off Tanith in her wolf form, but was unsuccessful. I was aware of Harvey laughing his socks off at this and of the bottle spilling its contents on the floor, neither of which did anything for my composure. Scrambling forward, I managed to stand the bottle up, before too much could be lost.

"Lighten up a bit, Gareth! This is a place that we can relax and remind ourselves of who we are." I lay back down and took another swig of the bottle.

"Such as? We're a bunch of werewolves, that have known each other for less than a day. What am I supposed to act like?"

"I don't know – just think, I know you just as well as you know me, so just lighten up a bit." Sighing, I sat up and looked at the pack mates I had been given this morning. It could have been a lot worse, when I face up to it. As Tanith went bounding off over the hills, Harvey loped easily after her, leaving just me sitting down at Nadia's feet.

"So what do you make of it all then, Nadia?" Drawing her back here from her thoughts, she looked at me and shook her head when I offered her the bottle.

"It's been a tough day. Like you said, we all just met, but that Hospital seems like a horrible place."

"That's why we are here – balance is our responsibility. We can't make it too nice; otherwise it becomes unbalanced the other way. A tough act, I know, but one we should be capable of. All of the tribes like to set tough challenges, but not ones that they think we are incapable of. One Rahu, two Cahalith and an Ithaeur makes for a nice pack and we can play to our strengths."

"Perhaps we'd better find out what our strengths are, then. Where did Harvey and Tanith go?" As Nadia looked towards where our companions had run to, I stood up and looked into the twilight. Just then, Harvey came sprinting down the hill, pursued by an increasingly distant Tanith.

"That should tire her out a bit for you, Gareth." Harvey chuckled as he jogged to a standstill, slapping me on the shoulder with one of his giant hands. Tanith bounded into the camp, breathless, but still excited.

"Great run, Harvey – I nearly caught you back there. Can we do it again?" The look of surprise that crossed his face was fleeting, but he rallied magnificently, smiling as he ruffled the back of her head in a friendly manner.

"Sure, but give it a few minutes yet – there's a few things we've got to sort out, like what we're going to make of this pack. Isn't that right, Nadia?" She nodded and looked at the three of us in turn. "Allow me to explain – in the Blood Talons, we are brought into the world of the Uratha by combat. We practice and learn our strengths and weaknesses, so that in times when you need them most, your pack knows where to assist you and where you will assist them."

"So, how do we get started with this then, Harvey?" Nadia had picked up the thread of the exercise and appeared to cede control momentarily to Harvey.

"As you have all seen my appearance and abilities when I shift to my Gauru form. I would like to see everyone else do the same, so that we can recognise them in that form and ensure that there is only one of us in this form at any one time." Folding his arms, he waited for one of us to step forward. Slowly, Nadia stepped between where Harvey stood and his two remaining pupils watched. Both Tanith and me found ourselves stepping backwards, as we observed Nadia's change. As she stepped forward, her form grew taller and more muscular, her leather jacket blending into her skin, allowing a coat of fur to show through. Suddenly, this svelte rock star was no longer recognisable to her legions of fans and the beast within her let forth a low, rumbling growl, the streak of silver fur across one ear reminding us all of who was the Alpha in this pack.

"Good. Now show me what you can do with this." Almost without thinking, Nadia hefted a sizeable tree trunk above her head and then dumped it back down in the picnic area that we had gathered in. "That's what I mean – power and grace, but there is something in there that wants to get out. Feel the anger, control it, ride it and direct it." Nadia released herself from the Gauru form, reverting back to her seemingly tiny Hishu form. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and she appeared quite out of breath.

"How was it, Nadia? It looked very impressive." Knowing that I was due to repeat the feat in a few moments, I tried my best not to sound snide in my comments.

"It felt… good," said Nadia, between breaths. Biting the bullet, I stepped forward into the ring and called forth my anger. Feeling the world shrink, I felt my muscles grow and my stature dwarf all around me. My mouth contorted into a huge muzzle shape and I became covered in my dark brown fur, with white markings on the backs of my hands and tops of my feet.

"I don't know what you were worried about, Gareth. Now, let's see if you can hit me." As if a red rag had just been waved at a bull, I lunged for Harvey, who deftly stepped aside me, laughing as he did so "Easy, tiger. Let's not get carried away." Momentarily snapping to my senses, I called with my mind to the local plant spirits, eager to wipe the smile off Harvey's face. Weeds and grasses took hold of him by the ankles and I walked over and picked him up, dragging his face to mine.

"Tag, you're it." My voice was broken and guttural, but Harvey got the message and I lowered him to the ground, reverting back to my human form and attempting to stop myself from shaking profusely.

"Now, you see, that's an advanced thing. Gareth just used one of his gifts to root me to the spot." Harvey absent-mindedly cleared the small patch of rampant vegetation, so as not to cause suspicion. "Where has Tanith gone, it's her turn…" Grabbing the bottle, I took another healthy pull of the bourbon and only then came to my senses and considered where she might be. After a short while of searching around the area, we noticed Tanith in the undergrowth a short distance away. Nadia put her fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle in the direction of Tanith, who looked up. Obediently, Tanith returned to the group, with a brace of rabbits in her mouth. She deposited them at the feet of Nadia and looked at us all.

"Well, I saw the rabbits a short way away and Harvey seemed to have everything under control with Gareth, so I thought 'dinner'."

"They would still have been there a few minutes later. Right now, you need to pay attention to Harvey, but thank you for the food." Nadia's response was measured, with both authority and appreciation.

I sat down on a bench and watched as Harvey took Tanith through her paces of her beast form. Her coat was a reddish brown, with flecks of white along the belly and she proved to be as powerful as Nadia, shifting the log back into place, so that people would not know what had happened here when they returned in the morning. We decided to make for a more sheltered location and picked up our bags and the rabbits that Tanith had caught. Heading south, we entered some of the more wooded areas, settling down away from the eyes that might stop at the local car parks.

As I sat down, I took the opportunity to survey the local life in the Hisil around these woods. With little to no hostile activity in the local area, I relaxed, propping myself up against the tree that I had sat down next to. Nadia turned her attention to the rabbits that had been brought forth by Tanith.

The hierarchy of a pack dictates that the Alpha will always eat first, before allowing the pack to move in for the remainder. Flicking open her penknife, she slit the skin of the rabbit, exposing the flesh beneath. Affirming her position as pack Alpha and the right of her heritage as a Storm Lord, she began the meagre feast. After a few mouthfuls of raw, warm rabbit, she dropped the carcass with that of its fallen comrade. Slowly and precisely, Harvey and Tanith took their share of the meat, while I was distracted by the goings on in the spirit world and the events that had happened today. Eventually, I walked over and removed a hind leg from one of the rabbits and started to eat my fill. I could not help but raise a smile at how difficult my comrades were finding this

"Haven't you ever eaten something like this? I don't know how they bring up you folk in the cities these days." Stripping a great mouthful of meat, I cleaned the bone and smacked my lips at the rich flavour of the wild animal. "I guess that the other option is that we go back to my place and grab some food there." Nadia shot me a look, as if to say that they would need to get used to it. I backed down and eventually we all bedded down for the night, under the cover of the trees in our wolf forms.

Spending the night outside asleep is always a liberating feeling, especially when you wake up in the morning a little damp with dew. Accustomed to early morning wake-up calls, I woke before dawn and sidled off to take care of business. When I returned, it appeared that none of my pack mates had been disturbed, so I decided to lie back down with them and wait for them to wake up properly.

"Morning mate, what time is it?" Harvey queried, looking at me through half open eyes.

"Haven't got my watch on. I guess it's around half four, could be quarter to five." I looked up, trying to see how much light was penetrating the woods, to get a more accurate time.

"Couldn't sleep? It's not normal for people to be awake at this time, you know." I looked over at Harvey's sleepy bulk, as he rolled back over and drifted back into a snooze.

"Force of habit, I suppose." Though I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I lay awake with the pack sleeping around me. I gave it about another half an hour, then I decided that it was time to wake them up. I nudged Tanith, who had been lying on the other side of me.

"Wstfgl?" Tanith was clearly not at her best when she was woken up by a strange wolf in the middle of the woods.

"We have to leave. I don't mean to crash the party, but we could draw some unwanted attention if we come out of the woods and get into a car that has been there all night, before driving off.

"Okay, you're right. Come on Nadia, time to wake up." Tanith shook Nadia awake gently "And you, lazybones!" She was a bit rougher with Harvey, knowing that he would take a lot more. We got ourselves up and shifted back to our Hishu forms, before walking down from the hills to the car park. Yawning, Nadia turned to me, anxious to know my plans.

"So, where are we going now? If we can't stay on the hills, where can we call home?"

"I thought my place would be as good a place as any. We're still getting to know each other, so we could grab a bite of breakfast and let you three catch up on sleep if you need it. From there, we can work out where we are going today to try and help us deal with the Powick issue." We all got ourselves up and re-adjusted to our human forms, before we made a move back to the car.

"Okay, but this is not a better alternative to sleeping on the hills. Tanith, are you okay to drive?" She nodded and unlocked the car, allowing us all in. Pushing me towards the front seat, Nadia hopped in the back with Harvey. As Tanith started the engine, Harvey groaned.

"What is it?"

"Half past five in the morning? Dammit, that means Gareth was right." He slumped back against the headrest, trying to wake himself up a little.

"Like I said, Harvey, it's force of habit. The earlier you start, the earlier you finish, so I get a good head start on the day and get the post delivered to people. Sure, not too many people know me from meeting me when I go out, but when I come back home, they thank me for the mail all the same." I directed Tanith back to my house and we parked outside. A small 2-bedroom place was ample for me, but now it seemed a little crowded with the four of us there.

"Well, help yourselves – there's food in the cupboards, hot water in the tank if you want a shower. If you feel like sleeping, there's a bed in the master bedroom. I sat down on the sofa and opened my bag that I had taken with me yesterday. Pulling out two empty bottles, I questioned Nadia and Harvey "Did I drink both of these?"

"Well, you gave it a good go, I'll say that much." Harvey was rooting around the fridge to find himself something to sate his appetite. "Tanith drank a bit herself, since she thought to bring them along with her." Just then, Tanith walked back down the stairs, having given herself the grand tour.

"Nice place, Gareth. Someone mention my name there?" I smiled and held up the two empty bottles.

"Yeah, we were just wondering how much we both drank last night. Apparently Harvey didn't and Nadia barely touched the bottles."

"Of course, you don't drink, do you Harvey," He shook his head in affirmation of this. "Not to worry. I think you drank most of it, Gareth – there was the bit that got spilled and you had nearly finished the first bottle when I came back with the rabbits." As I made an 'oh' shape with my mouth, Harvey walked past, carrying a frozen pizza, bag of oven chips, bottle of milk and a box of muesli. Puzzling his way around the oven, he set it to preheat and poured himself a generous bowl of breakfast cereal.

"Hungry?"

"You have no idea. Ever since I've been with the Talons, I've had a ravenous appetite. It's like I can't eat enough." I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of fruit juice. I poured myself a pint of the stuff and put back what little was left in there.

"I've got a pretty good idea – it's the same with me. Still, it means that I can eat fast food and not have to worry about my figure.

We all sorted ourselves out with food and drink, then we congregated in the lounge while I tidied up the remnants of food packaging. By the time that we had all taken the chance to clean ourselves up, it was getting on for eight in the morning, so we decided to work out a plan of action for the day.

"Well, what do we know so far?" Nadia clearly wanted to get back down to business.

"There are some badass spirits at this place – possibly driven mad by the presence of the insane that have lived there over the years, or perhaps by the treatments. Do you think that the treatments made people insane?" Tanith was at her best when she was brainstorming for an article, in hindsight. This was one of the things that endeared her to me at first.

"We could try and find out some records of patient names, staff and the like. There's bound to be something in the archives at the library. Census data and the like." Harvey offered. Tanith smiled and jotted it down on her notepad.

"I could ask Tim at the Red Dragon, in case he knows of people that might have some information about the place. It couldn't hurt." Nadia nodded at my suggestion and suddenly we had some places to look for our next lead.

"Okay, if we're going to split up, we need to share some mobile numbers. Mine is-"

"Sorry Nadia, but I don't have a mobile phone." I sheepishly admitted to the pack that I was out of the loop, so to speak.

"Jesus, Gareth, it's 2009. How is it that you don't have a mobile phone?!" Nadia rounded on me, but not in a nasty way, more of a frustration getting the better of her.

"I just never thought that I needed one – I've got my house phone and when I wasn't working, people found that I was always here, or they could leave me an answer phone message."

"Ease off him a little, Nadia – he hasn't got digital TV or even an internet connection here. We're all different people, after all.

"What can I say – most of the time I just listen to the radio for my news and music. I don't know what all the fuss is about, to be honest." Nadia, Tanith and Harvey all exchanged numbers and we decided to split up into two groups. Harvey and Tanith would use their research skills better in the library and archives, while myself and Nadia would hit the street, looking for information from the Red Dragon and cast the net around there.

"That's a small expense – we'll get you a phone sorted when we head into town, Gareth. We all need to stay in touch, after all." I nodded and we split at the college, heading across town through the morning commuter traffic to the Red Dragon. Trying to puzzle my way around the new phone's handset was difficult enough, let alone the hundreds of pages for the instruction book.

"I'll never read all of this, Nadia. Remind me why I bought one?"

"It's to help you communicate with everyone. She showed me how to input the three numbers of my pack mates into my phone, encouraging me to do it myself.

"Then why couldn't they write an instruction book that was shorter, thus having 'easier communication'?" I held the novel-like instruction manual, leafing through the pages, attempting to make some sense of it all.

Tim was obviously used to being open at all hours and we were greeted in his usual friendly manner, as he pulled a couple of pints for us. "What brings you two back here?"

"We went to Powick Hospital yesterday." Nadia tentatively took a sip of the pint of ale that had been presented, while I took a liberal swig of my new favourite Welsh brew.

"Ah, that place. Yeah, I heard that Elder Rainmaker had asked you to go there. You two have had some problems with this?" We followed Tim as he walked around the bar, dropping beer mats onto the tables, ready for the lunchtime crowd.

"Not quite problems, but you could say a shortage of information where we look for it." Tim let out a hearty laugh in our direction and turned to face us.

"Ain't that the truth? 'Cos if it weren't, you wouldn't be coming here to see me!" He walked back over to the bar and grabbed his cloth, before working on a particularly stubborn gravy stain on one of the tables. "Look, I'm sure you pair know as much as I do that it's not just us and the humans. There're others out there that might be interested in what you're working on."

"The Pure? But there aren't any of them too near to here, are there?" Tim turned around to face us and the bar, smirking.

"Not them. They wouldn't help you get what you want, anyway. Most likely, they'll wait until you've stabilised it and then launch an attack. Don't look so scared, you've got a lot of proving to do before then – you might even make some friends along the way." Someone banged on the door and Tim turned to go and let them in, while we made ourselves more comfortable at the bar. As we waited for Tim to lock the door back up, a squat figure, hunched over ambled past the bar towards the toilets and I shot a look towards Nadia, who just shrugged.

"Cant' keep them outside for too long, otherwise he starts to draw a crowd." Tim stepped back behind the bar and pulled a pint of very dark looking bitter. He walked over to the darker corner booth and placed the glass on the table, before walking back. Moving back to the bar, he noted our questioning expressions and sighed. "Cornerstone Joe – a regular of mine. Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies."

"But…" I started

"His affairs are strictly on a need to know basis and you, my friends, don't need to know." Placing his hands flat on the bar, Tim signalled the end of this part of the conversation. "Do you know of a place called The Shambles in the city?" I nodded and Nadia remained pleasantly confused by all of this. "Well, no doubt you've been told that it's not really a place where you want to go, but now, you just might _need_ to."

"Are you trying to tell us that we shouldn't really go there, but that we need to?" Tim nodded and I just looked confused. "Who, or what are we looking for?"

"_Who,_ is someone that will give you some of the information you're looking for. As for what… try looking for where the streets feel cramped and scrunched up together, like they are trying to be bigger. Sorry I can't describe this better, but you'll know what I mean when you feel it… I hope." We stood up, thanked Tim for his riddle of advice and left with his blessings.

"Was it me, or did you feel that we were being watched in there by someone other than Tim?" Nadia looked at me, as if I was getting paranoid.

"It must just be you, Gareth. You won't learn everything there is to know in a day, but don't stop trying. So tell me, where are these Shambles?" As we walked out onto the street, a light rain started to fall and I did my coat up against the chill in the air.

"Head right, past the station and towards the Cathedral from here. When you get near the older parts of the city, turn left and head for the edge of the shopping centres. It's pretty easy to spot, because the buildings are mostly old." We walked a short way and turned left, towards the older part of town, away from the shopping centre and high street. While the roads remained the same, the buildings blended into a time that had almost completely been forgotten about. Some of the buildings were hundreds of years old and the lines of the woodwork never followed straight, rigid constructions that you see today, more blending one building to its neighbour. I pointed out the buildings and one of them specifically had a name plate on "Here we are, The Shambles. I guess that this means our search starts here, Nadia." She nodded and we wandered along the medieval streets, the buildings seemed to become more cramped up to one another, practically leaning across the narrow roadways, close enough to touch. As we walked down the street, I started to notice a stabbing pain in my temple and I stopped walking, suddenly.

"Are you alright?" Nadia turned to me and looked concerned at the suddenness of my affliction.

"Yeah, it's just that something doesn't feel right at all with my head." I crouched down, as if to tie my laces and used my other eyes to look across the gauntlet. As the Hisil came into focus, I was drawn to a small shop across the street. It seemed very brightly lit up in the Hisil, but when I snapped back to the human world, it just seemed quite innocuous. I turned on my heel and started walking the way that we had been travelling and Nadia gave chase, catching up with me in a few steps.

"What's going on, Gareth? You're not well, are you?"

"Perhaps, but I'd like to talk about it over a drink, somewhere a little quieter… away from prying eyes, so to speak." I quickened my pace and we both found a quiet bistro and grabbed a table. I calmed myself down, mopping the sweat from my brow and Nadia came back to the table with a bottle of water.

"Can you see the bookshop over the road?" Nadia leaned in closer and peered down the cramped street, which we had come from.

"Just about. What's wrong with it?"

"It's an elaborate front for something. I think that we might be dealing with something," I looked around, checking for listening ears. "Not entirely of this world."

"How do you mean? More Uratha?" Nadia lowered her voice to a whisper, careful of who might be paying attention. I shrugged and took a long drink of the water.

"I don't think so – we wouldn't advertise ourselves like that in the Hisil. There're quite a lot of groups it could be, but we won't be certain unless we go in."

"That's why we need Harvey and Tanith." Nadia looked down at the

"What was that you needed us for?" Tanith tapped Nadia on the shoulder and she jumped in surprise. Reunited, the four of us sat down and discussed what we had found so far, including my feelings about the bookshop. Tanith showed us a few printouts of details from the electoral register about two nurses and one of the doctors that had worked at the hospital, before it closed. A few phone calls had been made and they had discovered last known whereabouts of these to all be local and still living, so we hopefully had something to go on. Harvey stared down the road in the direction of the bookshop, deep in thought.

"So, are we going to go and check this place out then?"

"I think that's a good idea, but why are we going there – we don't just pop in and announce who we are, do we?" Tanith seemed to be showing some reservations about going.

"Fair enough, we are looking for some information on the hospital at Powick. I'm sure that either of us could pass as tourists, with our accents, Tanith."

"So where does that leave us?" Harvey almost seemed offended by his lack of consideration within the discussion.

"Alternatively, we just go in as a group of friends and see what comes of it." I conceded. After a chorus of general approval, we headed toward the bookshop and the step into the unknown.


	3. Chapter 3

**Into the Darkness**

**Chapter 2**

As we walked down the street, I felt a temptation to utilise my gift and look across the gauntlet once more. Even from a few hundred yards down the road, I could see the brightly lit beacon of the bookshop, as some sort of supernatural activity within the Hisil seemed to resonate from this point. I had never encountered this type of strange power before and as a result, was relatively confident that we were not walking into a gathering of the Pure.

Entering through the small doorway of this antique looking shop, we were greeted by a modern, cozy, well lit little shop. The only thing that gave away the age of the building was the low ceilings, the maze like nature of the walls and the antiquated tinkling of the shop's bell as the door opened. Judging by the looks on the faces of the clientele sitting here reading books, it was as if four Goths had just stumbled into a Hippie love-in. Tanith tapped Harvey on the side and pointed him in the direction of the history book section, which he nodded at. As we were looking around the shop, a relatively old woman bustled up towards us and started to address us in a 'grandmother knows best' tone of voice.

"What are you doing here? People of your sort don't just wander into places like this uninvited, you know. Who is your Alpha? Come on, speak up."

"Our Alpha? Now, whatever is that supposed to mean, madam?" Nadia looked the old woman straight in the eye. This seemed to annoy her and she moved closer to Nadia, meeting the stare head on.

"Come now, child. We all know _what_ you are. Indeed, what the four of you are. Now, why does a pack of Uratha come walking into my bookshop, when we haven't arranged for it?" Surprised that someone would know so much about us from what appeared a first impression, Nadia rallied magnificently:

"We have come to find some information on the hospital at Powick. Would you be able to help us find out why the area seems to have a negative energy about it, that sort of thing?"

"Energy?" She snorted with a certain degree of contempt. "You're all the same – always striving to find balance in all things. If only you would open your eyes to it." Nadia raised her eyebrows at the cryptic message from the old woman. "Speak to Alice, she will help you with your search." As the old woman turned about, she called into the back room and a young girl, perhaps in her early twenties pushed through the beaded curtain to the staff area. She was blonde and had a pleasant, but somewhat distant smile upon her face and she didn't so much walk over to us, as glide across the space between.

"Hello there, can I get you a drink at all?" Relieved that finally someone was talking some sense, I breathed a small sigh of relief.

"I could murder a cup of tea. Milk and two, please."

"That's an awful thing to do to a cup of tea – what has it ever done to you?" Queried Alice, as her smile left her face temporarily. As she glided back out of the room, she offered the same to Harvey and Tanith. Harvey smiled at her, as she walked out – there was a look on his face that she had just ticked a few boxes for him.

Shortly after, Alice returned, with a cup of tea for me and a glass of water for Harvey. It was a little sweet, but I still managed to drink it. We discussed what was going on at the hospital and that the spirits seemed to have been upset and corrupted by the goings on there. Alice produced numerous books, detailing some of the deeds that had allegedly taken place there over the dark past of this facility. Tanith hurriedly scribbled notes in her book and as I drank the strange concoction, I became less interested in what was happening in the conversation.

Staring at the cup, as if there were something wrong with it, I tried to focus my attention, but to no avail. As I looked around the room, I noticed various spirits sitting idly by on the bookshelves. Some of them were like little leprechauns, leaning back as if they were novelty bookends themselves, while another was an ancient looking tome, that snapped and snarled at all and sundry, yanking at a ghostly chain which kept it bound to the shelf. In a rare moment of clarity, I covered my right eye and allowed myself to look beyond the gauntlet. While I saw the world in the darker blue tones, I looked at where the spirits were and I saw them, still acting the same, with no real difference from how I had seen them just. I pulled my hand from my face and looked in confusion from one packmate to the next. Harvey seemed to be talking to Alice, while laughing gaily. Nadia was leafing through books, while Tanith looked worriedly at me.

"Gareth… are you alright? You've gone pale. Well, paler." The words came to me as if they were from some great distance. Strange visions danced across my mind, good, bad and downright bizarre. The spirit that we had battled last night walked past, calmly munching on an infant spirit, while I saw the four of us packmates, talking to a teenager and a middle aged man, though I could not work out about what. I saw images of my packmates clutching grievous wounds and reeling back from whatever had caused them.

The sounds distorted in my mind, as much as my vision. From time to time, the voices of the pack would fade in and out, questioning me, though I could not summon up the control to hold a conversation with them.

Bouncing around various abstract visions, I found myself in my room, back on the farm. It was a cold morning and the fog just seemed to linger, regardless of the sun's power. I was reading, to stay out of the way of my parents, lest they find me some work. I stood up and stretched, grabbing myself a drink off the bedside table, when I looked out of the window and saw a black car pull up in the yard. It looked very official and two uniformed officers got out of the car, placing their hats on their head. I knew why they had arrived, yet I did not want to believe it. Suddenly, one of them knocked on the door.

I awoke with a start to the sound of my wristwatch bleeping at me. Wrestling with the covers, I shut the annoying thing off and checked the time. Quarter to five on Wednesday – it was a work morning, so I needed to get ready. I took a quick shower and as I shaved, I realised that there was only me in the bedroom – no sign of Tanith, Nadia or Harvey. Quickly running a comb through my hair, I wondered if my headache was the result of the goings on of late. Maybe it had been a dream and Michael was still about to introduce me to the pack. In spite of this, I found myself creeping down the stairs of my own house. I grabbed a bowl of cereal and a strong mug of coffee.

It was quite funny, looking back at this, that while I ate, I never even considered opening the lounge door, for fear of what I might find. I never usually shut it, so when I'd finished eating, I put my bowl in the sink, grabbed my boots and quietly opened the door.

Gazing into the darkness of my lounge, I was again gripped by a sense of foreboding, but I couldn't say why. The great hulking figure of Harvey's Urshul form was draped inelegantly across the sofa, snoring gently. To my right, the lupine figure of Tanith was curled up, next to a pile of blankets, presumable containing our Alpha. I picked my way across the room, trying to avoid a few boxes from the takeaway that they had indulged in. Loosing myself out through the front door, I sat on the step to get my boots sorted.

"Leaving so soon? It's not even half past five and you probably needed more sleep than the rest of us put together." Harvey had appeared in the doorway, now back in his human form, lest someone see him. For such a big guy, he moved incredibly lightly on his feet.

"Well, I've still got a job to do. Those letters won't deliver themselves." The cool morning air finished the job of waking me up and I stood, turning to Harvey.

"You're being ridiculous. What do you possibly owe humanity?" He leant against the wall, still looking down at me from within the doorway.

"It's not a case of owing humanity anything. Think of it like this – The Iron Masters helped me to move from my original job with the Royal Mail after I found myself. They got me this house and they don't come cheap, look you. I need money to keep a roof over my head and pay back the Masters. They bought this place when I moved here and I contribute towards the mortgage, effectively renting from them."

"A sound argument," Harvey stepped out through the door, pulling it to. "But I think that you're not seeing my point of view. Look at it – we help to preserve what's here by risking our god-damned lives for them. We don't get any thanks, no-one really knows what we do, because if they did, it would drive them crazy."

"So what you're saying is that you have a problem with me doing this as a job?" I tilted my head slightly at Harvey, trying to work out his motives.

"I'm saying that you already have a job in being who you are and being a part of this pack. Where one goes, we all must go." Harvey had drawn himself up to his full height and he was starting to loom over me. I pulled my key out of my pocket and opened the door

"Even Superman has a day job, because saving the world won't put a roof over your head. If you think this is a pack issue, perhaps we should all discuss it." I offered the door to Harvey, to allow him passage first. It crossed my mind to slam the door shut and go to work, but it wouldn't have been many steps before he caught me and dragged me back. This needed sorting out now.

Firmly, but fairly, Harvey woke both of the ladies and plonked himself down on the sofa. I remained standing by the door. "Morning ladies, we all need to talk." As Harvey set about trying to sort out a court to air his grievances, I glanced at my watch. In ten minutes, Steve would be waiting for me in his car, so I needed to make this brief.

"Gareth still has a human job – he's a postman. What point is there that he does that, anymore? We're werewolves and putting our lives on the line is enough, without having to worry about money as well." Harvey's argument was well presented, but I was in no mood to debate this point, as I had to get going.

"I've basically stated that it still remains that my debt to the Iron Masters on this house must be repaid, it helps with keeping the neighbours sweet that I am a normal person and it doesn't make me forget just why I do what I do."

"What do you mean, why you do what you do?" Harvey maintained his strong, hard level of questioning.

"With some of the people that you meet when you're on the rounds, you realise that they lead entirely normal lives. Would any of us have known about the Mages yesterday, had we not gone in there? Possibly only me, but that's beside the point. I may deliver post to Mages, Vampires and all other sorts of supernatural beings, however unlikely that sounds, but I still want to do my bit, to keep up the pretence, to remember that I was still born a human. What about you three?"

"I don't see the problem, Harvey." Nadia had sat herself down on the easy chair, still wrapped in the blankets. "I mean, Gareth still has a human life. Both you and Tanith can still have one. I gave mine up when I became famous."

"I can't have a life of my own, not with what I've become. I was an up and coming young runner, but now my body has changed and I can't compete with humans any more. The first change destroyed that dream." Opening up a little to us all, Harvey seemed ever so slightly smaller, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"So, because you aren't able to have that aspect of a life, you think that Gareth shouldn't have one either? That hardly seems fair." Nadia thought aloud, reasoning, but in a relatively firm tone of voice.

"But what if something happens? If we're all there, we can watch out for each other." Harvey protested

"You make it sound like you're trying to cover every eventuality, Harvey. I could walk out of this house and get run over by a car, for all we know. I'll admit, I'm not the soldier that my brother once was, but I'm not a coward either. I have this responsibility and I want to carry on with it." I stood there in silence for a few seconds, as Harvey and Nadia both looked in my direction. Tanith was rooting around in the kitchen, presumably for some breakfast.

"Tanith, do you have anything to add?" Nadia turned her attention to the young woman in the kitchen, who was pouring a glass of milk

"Not really – I can keep an eye on where you are, if you're close enough, but you're all big enough to look after one another, without constant surveillance."

"In that case, I see no issue with Gareth continuing his employment. I get royalties from my music and Tanith makes money through her journalism. That leaves you free for more things, during the day."

"I just want to make sure that you know what our pack means. To the rest of us." Harvey stopped looming and his shoulders sagged, almost in defeat at what Nadia had declared.

"I know what it means. We have to help one another to get through whatever gets thrown at us. When I go out on the rounds, I have a chance to think. This time is my own and it is paid for, so I win both ways. I can consider things that we might have missed and when I come back and you guys are properly awake, maybe we can carry on with our other duties?" As I saw Nadia nod to me, I turned on my heel and opened the door. "I'll see you guys in a few hours." Leaving the three of them to discuss things might be beneficial for all involved, I reasoned with myself, heading to work.

Quickening my pace, I jogged down to the corner of the road, where Steve was waiting. The shift passed quickly, with me brooding over the mood I was now in. During my walks through the suburbs, I could have sworn that I saw a large dog just on the edge of my vision at a few points. Perhaps Harvey cared more about me than he was letting on. I tried to spot the source of this 'vision' but I was unsuccessful, so did my best to appear that I had not noticed.

When I returned home, it was pretty quiet when I entered through the front door. Tanith was sat in front of her computer, typing away. I greeted her as I walked in and she smiled at me.

"Hey there, any news?"

"Nothing much, Gareth. We might have a few more leads, when Nadia gets back. She's not far away, but she's still driving." It was like she'd flicked a switch internally. Gone was the playful exterior that she showed us a few nights ago on the Malvern Hills and here was a business-like attitude. Perhaps she was writing an article and needed her space.

"Do you fancy a drink? I'm just about to put the kettle on." Tanith nodded and I started preparing two cups of tea, as we continued to talk. Harvey had gone for a run about an hour ago, while Nadia was just grabbing a few bits and pieces from the supermarket. As I came back into the lounge and sat on the sofa, she pushed her laptop to one side, so that she could pay me some attention.

"How do you do that? You seem to know where everyone is at the exact moment."

"It's a skill. Kind of similar to how you look across the gauntlet, I just concentrate on thinking about you guys and I know where you are and what you're doing. Not something that I enjoy all of the time, that much I've learned." Tanith rolled her eyes at the sentiment of catching some of her packmates in scenarios that were best reserved for the viewing of only the person in question.

"It's the same for me. Yesterday wasn't fun when we walked past the bookshop. It was like looking into a torch, just before you turn it on."

"Yeah, Nadia mentioned you had a bit of a turn, before we went in there. You didn't seem yourself yesterday – you even seemed a little more confrontational this morning." As Tanith sipped her tea, it almost seemed like she was interviewing me for a journalistic piece. I couldn't shake the thought from my mind that she was taking notes on what I was really up to.

"I never sought a confrontation; I just wanted to go to work." I indicated my uniform that I still wore – navy blue trousers and jumper, with a light blue cotton shirt underneath, the badge of Royal Mail visible on my left breast pocket. "It just seemed that Harvey didn't want me doing this."

"I followed you today, Gareth. You seem to enjoy delivering the post to people. I cannot fault it. Perhaps your ideals are just something that Harvey is going to have to get used to." The idea that Tanith as a wolf was following me seemed more comforting, as she'd already seemed to strike up a rapport with me.

"What, when I was working? So it was you that was keeping tabs on me. Now who's being risky?" Tanith smiled and drained the last from her mug, wandering off in the kitchen for a refill. She offered me a cup of tea, with a gesture of the mug and I nodded, apologising for forgetting to finish making the tea the first time around.

"I just don't want to see you getting hurt. I think Harvey is concerned about you as well, but he has trouble showing his true feelings. It's common with most males." Standing in the kitchen, making gestures with the spoon, she looked sidelong at me, knowingly. I tried my best to ignore it.

"So, what happened yesterday, after the Mage's bookshop? I don't really remember what went on after we left." My face was a picture of confusion and I removed my walking boots, glad to take the weight off my feet.

"Well, I went back and did some research with Harvey at the Library, while you and Nadia came back here. You were in no fit state for anything and you looked really pale. Mind you, that girl Alice did say that she'd never seen anyone neck a whole cup of that stuff as fast as you did."

"I was thirsty and to be honest, it didn't taste that bad. Who's Alice, again?" I tried to focus my mind and an image of a little blonde thing danced its way across my recollection of the day's events.

"She was the assistant in the shop. I think she's a mage as well. Harvey got her number and will likely go on a date with her."

"I'm sure they'll be very happy together."

"Do I detect a spark of jealousy in your voice, Gareth?" Tanith leaned forward and grinned at me, playfully patting me on the shoulder, before returning to the kitchen for the drinks.

"It doesn't matter. It's like with friends. When I was at school, I became good friends with one lad in my class. I went to his house once for tea and met his family. I was introduced to them all and I found that his sister was a stunner. Not just pretty, but she was incredibly attractive. It was all I could do to pull my jaw off the floor, that's what I mean." I sighed, recalling the memory of that girl's face. "The thing is she's the sister of one of my best friends, so the unwritten rule is that she is not fair game."

"Everybody has one that they call 'The one that got away', haven't they?" I shrugged and she smiled at me. "You can't waste your life sitting around wondering what could have been, can you?"

"I suppose you're right, but if you've no regrets, your life is a little dull. What about you then, did you ever have one that got away?"

"I might have, what's really to talk about there, can we talk about something more cheery? What happened to you yesterday, after you drank that stuff?"

"Stuff? Oh, you mean the revenge for wanting to murder a cuppa? Oh, I'm not really sure. I started getting a headache and it was as if my skill at seeing through the gauntlet was switched on all the time. I could see things that were really there, just over the top of the stuff in this world. You know what it's like if you've got vertigo?"

"Yeah, you were pretty unstable, as you kept wobbling about and I was afraid you'd be sick in the car."

"Thinking back about it, I'll have to check, when we get to places that I saw when I was under the influence... If you were worried about me, I'd be more concerned about Harvey, if he's going on a date with this Alice woman..."

"You do ramble a lot, don't you, Gareth?"

"Yeah. I don't really know why, either. I guess I've not had anyone major to talk to for most of my life. Only my brother, when we were growing up and then there was Karen, when I was living in Monmouth."

"Karen?"

"My ex-girlfriend. We were together for a few years, after I came to Monmouth, getting away from home." I sighed.

"Did you break up because of what happened to you?" Tanith passed a mug of tea to me and sat down in front of her computer, getting comfy again.

I chuckled at the memories, as they came back to me. "No, we'd broken up before then. She was into the spiritual side of things. She kept telling me that Iwan was with us, which kind of freaked me out and upset me." I shifted position on the sofa, awkwardly.

"Who's Iwan?"

"He was my older brother. He served with the UN peacekeepers in Kosovo, back in the late '90s. He was 19 when the vehicle he was in hit a land mine. The driver lost a leg as the explosion tore through the armour. A piece of shrapnel severed his aorta and he died from blood loss." My eyes glazed over as I recalled the report that was read to the family by the officers, who turned up at our door, bearing the Welsh flag, some thirteen years ago.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Tanith gave me her condolences and I raised a brave smile. For the first time in a long time, it felt like someone was actually concerned for me and wanted to hear what I had to say. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine. It's just that some wounds take longer to heal than others." My voice cracked a little and Tanith placed her hand on mine, giving it a quick squeeze. I responded, squeezing hers back and I smiled through tear-stained eyes, feeling slightly embarrassed about allowing my emotions to get the better of me. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be like this in front of you. The burden isn't yours to bear."

"If you want to talk about it, you know that I'll gladly talk to you at any time about this, or anything."

"Thanks Tanith, I've never known anyone that I can make such a connection with so easily."

I ran the back of my sleeve along my face, wiping away the tears at the still painful recollection of my late brother.

"Sometimes, you just find someone that you're totally at ease with talking to. You seem like you've had it tough and you need a friend. I'm not offering my friendship out of sympathy, but because I feel we've got more of a connection than just being brought together as packmates."

"Alright then, we've known each other for less than a week and you already know pretty much the 'This Is Your Life' story of Gareth Dempsey. I don't know much about you, except that you're a journalist and that you're American."

"Wow, two facts about me and one is right. Impressive work, Sherlock."

"What, you're not a journalist? I thought that was how you made your living, by selling stories to the press agencies."

"I am a journalist, but I was born north of the border in Canada. Just outside of Toronto. We moved to Buffalo, when I was young. Technically, I'm an American citizen, but I still fly the maple leaf, as opposed to the star spangled banner." Tanith's mitigating circumstances drew a smile, as she sat back in sarcastic triumph.

"I said American – I meant 'North America', as in the continent.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one, I would never have to work again. What more did you want to know?"

"Well, what brings you here would be a good start. Surely the elders didn't ship you all the way to Worcester from Buffalo, because we were putting a pack together. Looking at it, the four of us have come from quite a way away. I just seemed to actually live here for a while before we met one another."

"I guess I always wanted to travel – I'd been in Buffalo for a while after the first change and somehow, it didn't feel right. I talked to my mentor and he encouraged me to travel."

"So, why did you choose Worcester? Not that I have anything against the place, it's a start, after all." I ran my hand across my face, stroking back the stubble, irritably.

"It was somewhere different – An English city, but not somewhere huge and overly-urban. Kind of like home, but not actually home."

"It seems strange that you'd end up so close to the rest of us without outside influence. Do you believe in fate?"

"I've never really thought about it, although I'm starting to." Tanith hugged her mug of tea and curled up on the sofa. "Anyway, you're not exactly local, are you?"

"No, but I've kind of made my way over here in stages. I have too many ties with home just to let go."

"I still stay in touch with my parents – we speak and write quite frequently." Tanith's eyes glazed a little, as she remembered home for a brief moment, her mind travelling from the comfort of my living room.

"I haven't spoken to my parents for nearly ten years." I stood up and walked to a cupboard at the side of the room, before rooting around in there. I walked back across the room with a photo and passed it to Tanith. "That's my mum, dad and Iwan, my brother."

"I can tell he's your brother, you two look so alike." Tanith smiled at the youthful appearance of my brother in the photo.

"He was eighteen then. One of the few days that it stopped raining on the farm." Tanith giggled at the sentiment.

"I can see that you two were close – it really shows from the photo." I smiled sheepishly, as Tanith handed me back the photo.

"I'm not sure how I've gone this long without him. When are we, 2009? Thirteen years I've been without him and yet, it feels like yesterday." I sighed, gently caressing my brother's face on the photo, before putting it away.

"I know that you've heard this before, but if you need to talk about it, I've always got a friendly ear to listen. I've got a lot of time for you, Gareth, you know?"

"Hmm?" I snapped back out of my little daydream of being on the farm again, climbing high bank and looking out across the village, the occasional sheep adding its voice to the wind.

"Sorry, I was lost for a moment there." The vision intensified for a split second and Iwan stood next to me, two boys, kings of all they could see. "It comes to something when your older brother is your only real friend."

"Were there not many people around where you lived, or can you just not get close to people?"

"We lived on a farm in the hills, so there was never really anyone around, who I could be friends with… well, except Iwan."

"It's hard to find decent friends, no matter where you are. Believe me, I know, I've tried."

"I had a few friends in Monmouth, but after the first change, I haven't been back there, so I've literally just disappeared from there. I'm not sure I'll see them again."

"I wonder sometimes if I'll ever go back home. My parents don't know about my change and they have no idea what I am."

"Mine neither, it seems like we have something in common then… other than the obvious."

"Makes sense. My parents would never cope with what I am – it would ruin the family name, for example and everything else could just stir things up."

"I'm not sure anyone can actually take this properly, even you or I."

"It is a bit different to what we're used to – after all, we're not exactly human any more. We've become the things that we were told stories about when we were just kids. Then this happens and good god, we're knee deep in it." She stood up, grabbed the cups and deposited them in the sink, before filling the kettle up again and switched it on. Returning to the lounge, she cleared the arm of the sofa in a jump and plonked herself back on the sofa next to me. "So, what happened this morning with Harvey?"

"It was a lot of fuss about nothing. He didn't think I should be doing my job, because of what I am now. He said it was because we're a pack, we need to look out for one another and that you three can't look out for me if I'm delivering post." I sagged on the sofa, despite the fact that I'd effectively won the argument.

"He cares. That's what it sounds like from what I heard and what you've shown me. Don't be too hard on him, as you've both got talents that we need."

"Maybe it's just that I feel I'm the only target. I mean, he wouldn't do anything like this to Nadia, because she's the boss. Would he try something like this with you? Perhaps he's too noble to try."

"Perhaps. Don't worry about it – you can still do this and I'm behind you on it. So is Nadia." As I lay back on the sofa, Tanith walked past and tussled my hair, playfully and walked off into the kitchen, preparing the tea for us both.

"I'm glad that someone's got my back, it means a lot to me. So come on then, I've given you a lot about me, you've told me how you came to be here, but what about your family? How come you became a journalist? There's so many questions that I've got and it seems like we've got a chance to get to know one another."

"I suppose you're right. The pure and simple answer is that I enjoy writing. I've been writing since I was at high school – I joined the school newspaper and it just spiralled from there."

"So when you left high school, you got a job with a paper?"

"Pretty much. Reading and writing go hand in hand and they've both been a big part of my life."

"So, what sort of books do you read?" Stretching myself out a little across the sofa, I looked behind me, through the kitchen door. I couldn't be bothered to get up and walk all the way to the kitchen, it just seemed too far.

"You're gonna laugh at this – mostly supernatural stuff, particularly ones with werewolves in them. And now here I am right smack bang in the middle of one of them. From what I've read, I wonder if the people that write them have gone through the same stuff that we have."

"I'm not so sure they would have – surely it would raise too much awareness amongst sad individuals that might want to stalk their own pack of werewolves, no matter the danger."

"Hmm, a good point, though it does sound a little like they are lucky coincidences. Perhaps they're blooded and know a little about what they write, but just not enough to blow our cover?"

"Maybe we just think too much about this and they really are just ignorant mortals?"

The front door opened and the conversation ended, with some questions still to be answered. Tanith moved around seamlessly to face her computer as Nadia came walking in through the door.

"Ah, you're back. Now all we need is Harvey and we can get started again." Nadia put down a few shopping bags and I stood up, walking through to the kitchen.

"I'll grab a quick shower, so I'm out of his way. If he's gone for a run, he'll probably be in need of some hot water."

"Take your time, Gareth. He's not sprinting, so I think he's about 10 minutes away at the moment." Tanith shouted after me as I ran up the stairs.

When I returned, I saw that Harvey had returned from his run. He was barely sweating and his breathing was almost normal. We all sat down and started to discuss the findings of yesterday, which came as a surprise to me, since I hadn't really taken much in after the bookshop. Tanith and Harvey had discovered a few addresses, where former employees of the hospital lived. One of the doctors was in a local nursing home and a former nurse lived in Blackpole, a suburb on the other side of the river. It was agreed that I would accompany Nadia, due to my spiritual talents and that we would see the doctor. Hopefully someone who was in authority there would have a better chance to know what we wanted to know.

The four of us got into Tanith's more practical car – her Lamborghini had been put in a secure garage out of town and her more practical family saloon had taken its place. She drove us to the nursing home in a very comfortable journey, compared to the way she drove the Italian sports car. As we were driving along, I couldn't help but think we were being followed by someone… or something. I tried to distract myself, by listening to the radio, but it wasn't really my type of music. I spent the time trying to consider what questions this old man would need to be asked… and what sort of things would be prowling on the other side of the gauntlet.

We drove through the gates of a modern care facility, called Willow Grange. It lacked the style of the more traditional converted stately homes that some care homes were these days and for my liking, it looked a little too clinical and modern. Nadia and I got out of the car, leaving Tanith and Harvey to their own devices. Crunching our way across the gravel path, we made our way to the main entrance. Overall, the facility smelt particularly of cleanliness, as opposed to the more traditional smells associated with old people – urine and medicinal creams. Nadia approached the main desk and asked to see the retired doctor. Nadia gave the nurse a skilfully told tale of how her old uncle was this old man that we had come to see. I was playing the part of "close personal friend". The nurse fell for it and we were allowed in to see him.

Walking down the corridor towards Doctor Yashichev's room, I felt a deep sense of apprehension. Nadia's stride was matched by mine, yet where hers appeared confident, I could not share that feeling. Still, I tried my best to hide any sign of weakness, calming my breathing and wiping the sweat from the palms of my hands. Was it an act, or did she just not know what to expect. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled, as my hand stopped just short of the door handle. Looking at my alpha, she nodded her head and knocked the door, before I opened it and we both stepped in.

The room was decorated with typical decor straight out of the 1970s. The walls were covered in some sort of disgusting brown, intermingled with a sun-faded orange. The scent of decades of incontinence reached my nostrils here and I covered my nose, trying to stop my eyes from watering. A frail looking old man was staring out of the window, while sitting in his wheelchair. Two oxygen tanks strapped to the back of the chair fed a tube to his nose. Clearly, this man was unwell, for what sympathy it provoked.

Nadia approached the chair, nodding her head and smiling sweetly at a nurse, who smiled and nodded as she went about her business in the room. As Nadia knelt down, a rasping voice crackled out to her, barely audible to me, as I stood by.

"I know why you've come. It was only a matter of time." The Doctor turned his gaze upon Nadia, his tiny pupils intently focused on her, as if holding her with his sheer force of will. "Ask what you want, I have nothing to hide."

"Very well then, I wish to speak to you about your time at Powick Hospital." Upon the mention of the hospital, my mind was drawn back to the events of a few nights hence, where we had fought spirits and I had stood at the bottom of the stairs, helpless, as the soldier tumbled down the staircase, seemingly pushed by a nurse, charged with his care. Snapping myself out of that flashback, I noticed that a wry smile had crept across the face of the elderly doctor.

"Ah yes. Some good work was done there. Much too little, as not all of the patients were saved." His gaze turned wistfully over across the verdant fields that his room was afforded a view of.

"How do you mean, Doctor? Your patients were subject to appalling conditions and many of them succumbed during their stays there." Nadia stepped back a little from the chair, slightly aghast, as I passed her a chair, choosing to stand next to her.

"I completely succeeded in curing a delusional boy of believing that he was a wolf. He was much like you, you know..." he stated, turning his gaze upon me. "Quiet, understated, but he liked to run around on all fours and he acted like an animal, if the mood took him. That was quite intolerable behaviour for someone that wishes to live in modern society. He survived the treatment."

"May I ask what became of him?" I asked, as the thought of a brother Uratha being harmed in such a way was caused feelings of vengeance to simmer in my mind.

"I believe he lived a calm life. Quieter than he was before, but that has to be expected of lobotomy patients, I suppose." As I suppressed a shudder, Nadia laid a hand on my wrist and looked at me. Upon seeing her eyes, I knew that this was not the time, nor the place to let out my feelings. I took half a pace backwards, feverishly jotting notes on a pad that I had brought along.

"I suppose that this would mean that he was incapable of leaving the institute after the treatment, then?" Nadia asked, wary of my reaction, while I wrestled for control over my emotions, my mind throwing up images of electro-shock treatment, or even a lobotomy for the poor kid. I could barely contain my contempt.

"Yes, but as he was before the treatment, he was a danger to society." The doctor grinned at Nadia, knowingly.

"What of this young man here?" She opened her bag and pulled out a file, selecting a black and white picture of the young soldier that I had witnessed being pushed down the stairs. "According to our records, you signed his death certificate."

"I may well have. The photograph is not of anyone I recognize."

"Are you a GP? Did you have the authority to do that? It says that your major talent is psychiatry and psychoanalysis."

"Ha ha! My dear, you can hardly quote laws that came in after I retired and say that I broke those over sixty years ago. Your accusations are baseless and totally preposterous!" He guffawed, as I cast my mind back to the incident, watching as the young man's body bounced off the marble staircase and I flailed uselessly, trying to prevent it from happening.

"I am not accusing you of anything, merely checking to see that the facts are right, Doctor." Nadia opened the file and produced a piece of paper, which she read from: "It says that his name was Sergeant Roger Young and he was back from the front, where he had served during the Second World War He showed symptoms of shell shock. His date of death was the eleventh of June, 1952, making him a forgotten soldier, you might say. His cause of death was labelled as a broken neck, caused by a fall down the stairs. Does the young man ring any bells with you now?"

The doctor clicked his false teeth in his mouth, before jamming them back into place, clenching his jaw. "Yes, I remember this case. Quite sad, really."

"Were the stairs not blocked for just such a purpose? Had he not been confined to a ground floor room, to prevent such a thing from happening?" The old man let out a wheezing laugh, which developed into a cough and the nurse hurried forward, helping him with the oxygen mask. After a short while, his coughing subsided and he waved the nurse away, to return to her other duties.

"This was before the days of health and safety getting in the way of everything, for the fat lot of good they do!" A glint of malice twinkled in his eye and he pointed at me. "Perhaps you would agree that some of those souls were better off dead than living like that?" Considering the gravity of the doctor's proposition, I wanted just to step forward and finish him there and then, snapping his brittle neck with my bare hands. Fortunately, I managed to keep my feelings within and merely answered his question with another:

"Is that a confession, doctor? Did people in your care that you deemed too far gone just have 'accidents', allowing you to free up the time for you to practice on other patients? I note that you hardly had a glowing record of success."

"That is absolutely untrue – we had one like you in there in the 60s, but I've already told you about him and how I cured him." I stepped back, allowing Nadia to take control, once more. If anything, I was getting more and more frustrated with the situation and it seemed as if I had given the frail doctor a way to pull my strings.

"What makes you think that people like us are wrong?" I walked away from the wheelchair and leant against the wall, trying to keep my emotions in check. The old man chuckled as he stared through Nadia's steely gaze.

"I know that you have suffered – I'm not saying that I could make everything right, but I could cure your urges for the beast that you delude yourself about." I moved back to Nadia's side and squeezed her shoulder, in case she was about to do something rash. Closing my right eye, I glanced across the Gauntlet and spied a worrying sight. Standing behind the wheelchair, with spectral hands interwoven with the back of the doctor's neck was a spirit. It looked horribly menacing – a tall figure, lean and angular, with sharp tendrils for fingers and a wicked grin, like a jack-o-lantern, but outlined in ghostly translucent white. The grin it wore seemed to spread almost completely around the area that had to be its face

"You know little then, Doctor. I have not felt any pain or suffering from this and would not willingly submit to any treatment that you prescribe."

"The patient seems delusional. Nurse, bring us 4cc of Ketamine and send in the orderlies. I believe that she will resist." The Doctor's voice turned away from the rattle of the dying old man and sounded like a matter-of-fact doctor, who was giving orders to his staff. As Nadia visibly bristled and stood bolt upright, I cast my glance over at the nurse, who was fiddling with a tray of what looked like medicines. I moved over to her and kept myself ready to intercept something which could shift the balance of the conversation, such as a nurse armed with a syringe of drugs.

The nurse smiled, carrying on her tasks and I cast a quick glance over at Nadia. Instead of turning on her heel and preparing to leave, she moved her head next to the doctor's and whispered into his ear. Then she stood up and walked to the door. I calmly followed her out, shutting the door behind me, glad to be away from that place and the smell.

The conversation with the Doctor had left a bad taste in the mouth and I considered the parasitic spirit that was bound to him that I saw across the gauntlet. This problem that we had was far deeper routed than I had previously thought. Walking back through the corridors to the reception desk to sign out, Nadia said little, but kept bunching her hands up into fists. It looked as if she was ready to punch through a wall. She did rally magnificently when we reached the desk to sign out.

"Are you alright? You look a little tense." Asked a nurse, concernedly.

"I'm alright - I just can't bear to see him like this, that's all." Nadia forced a smile

"Don't worry, we'll take good care of him." She accepted the clipboard and the visitor badges back off both of us.

"Thank you." Nadia managed and we walked out of the building,

"So, what did you tell him?" I asked Nadia, as we walked out of the main entrance.

"I made him a promise: Rest assured, we will return for you. Once the hospital has been cleansed, we will come here and you will be judged, in this life, or the next." She carried on walking to the car, her expression cold and unmoving.

"I'm glad we're out of there – the smell was terrible, don't you think?" We grabbed at the door handles and hopped into Tanith's waiting car. She turned the key as we got in and the four of us left the grounds of the care home.

"I didn't notice a smell – except the cleaning chemicals, almost like in a hospital."

"Hmm, that's strange. I smelled old people, urine, a trace of blood and something else which was overwhelming. I'm not sure what it was, but it was strong enough to drown that clean smell out for me." Nadia looked confused by this and I shrugged my shoulders at the revelation.

"So come on, what did you find out?" Tanith looked at the pair of us in the rear view mirror, as Harvey listened in.

"That man is pure evil. When we are done at the hospital, we are coming back here to give him what he deserves."

"I'm not so sure that it is entirely his fault, Nadia. Something else influences him, though I cannot tell whether he was evil before it got to him and it is making him worse, or if he was borderline and that makes him how he is. Clearly, he is not repentant."

"How do you mean?" Nadia turned to me, allowing me to go on with my description.

"When I stood there in the room with you, he was not such a frail old man, that might drop dead tomorrow, despite his advancing years. His mind is still as sharp as anything, though his body may be dying. I looked across the gauntlet and saw something very disturbing. Something stood behind his shoulder, with great big ethereal claws poking through the back of his neck. It was really tall and gangly, as if it wouldn't be able to move properly.

I have spoken to my guide about spirits before at some length. From what he has told me and what I have retained, this may well be a vengeance spirit. The only thing that wouldn't fit is the nickname he gave them. Little balls of hate, he called them. I suspect that it may be using its own essence to keep the doctor alive for one reason or another.

The nurse had some sort of spirit associated with her as well, though I'm not sure it is the same as the one involved with the doctor."

"I'm so glad we have you here, Gareth. Without you, we'd have only found that out when we went into the Hisil." Tanith chimed in, almost cheerfully.

"Thanks, Tanith… I guess. If, and I don't mean to overstep the mark here, any of us were to try to strike this doctor down, the spirit could use that as an opening to try and bond to any of us. My suggestion would be to go in as before, but with backup." The only sound was the purr of the engine, as my pack listened intently to my suggestion, car pulled over at the side of the road. Satisfied that she had heard enough, she put the car back in gear and drove in the direction of my house, the impromptu base of operations for the pack.

"How do you mean, backup?"

"When myself and Nadia get out of the car, Harvey, you and Tanith cross to the Hisil and follow us from there. I can keep a track of you both, as you're across the gauntlet. It may be a ruse, but I suspect that the spirit is keeping him alive, so we eliminate the suspicion first. If you wish to kill him, I will not stop you, merely act as protection, as we're going to have to run like hell once he's dead."

"As our Ithaeur, I'd suggest you were across the gauntlet, Gareth. After all, you know spirits better than us." Harvey pointed out

"I believe so, but there's two factors why I've not suggested that: The cover of myself and Nadia being there once before would need no explanation, provided they don't suspect anything. I can see across the gauntlet, while I'm here in the material realm. I can keep Nadia abreast of what is going on there, while we wait for you two." Sitting back in the seat, I took in the fact that both Nadia and Harvey were completely focused on me. Tanith's attention was probably there as well, but as she was driving, her eyes were on the road.

"What do you think, Tanith?" Asked Harvey, after a long pause and no response from Nadia.

"I don't know which way the events happened. If he has to die, then so be it." As Tanith swung the car onto a main road back towards Worcester, Nadia seemed to exit a phase of deep contemplation.

"We will talk about this at some other point. Right now, I need to cleanse my thoughts, as I do not feel good after visiting that place." Acknowledging the wishes of my alpha, I silently chastised myself for overstepping the mark, as we headed back into the village of Rushwick

A few days passed and we slowly progressed though the transition from a group of loosely associated individuals toward a pack. Tanith arranged for internet access at my house and the calm serenity of the solitude that had been afforded to me when no-one was around was now completely destroyed. Nadia had brought a small, but rather loud stereo, which pumped out music to her taste during the day and while Harvey kept himself to himself with the lengthy runs he took, we still found time to bond as a group. Daily trips to the Malvern Hills kept us in touch with the tranquillity that we were pursuing at Powick and Nadia dispatched us in pairs to survey the area around the Hospital, which allowed us to get to know one another better.

That afternoon, I was asked to accompany Tanith to the cottages and check them out a little more. We drove to a spot a few miles from the site, where we would not be noticed so much, parked the car and shifted to our wolfen forms, before running across the countryside to our destination. The boarded up cottages were within a short walk of the main hospital building, which loomed over the local area, almost menacing, even in its disused state. Fortunately, Harvey had only propped the boards up against the doorway, otherwise we would not have shifted them.

The musty smell within reminded me a little of my parent's farm cottage, though this was stronger - a massive hint of disuse contributing to it all. Except for the pack's incursion a few days ago, no-one else seems to have been in here for quite a while. A little sunlight illuminated small parts of the hallway, through cracks in the boards and I decided to change to my form to cope with the conditions. As I stood about a foot taller and grew more muscular and hairy, Tanith calmly stood there and pulled a torch out of her handbag.

"That could work as well, I suppose." Tanith passed me the Maglite, which looked tiny in my oversized hand. She continued to root around and produced a note pad and pen.

"Come on, Gareth." She said, stifling a laugh. "Let's just get this done." She had me point the torch at various articles and jotted down notes in some language I couldn't understand.

"Alright, so where had we left it the other morning. Tanith's tale, chapter two?"

"What do you mean? We're just here finding out if we can make this place liveable, or if we have to use a favour or two from a few blooded tradesmen."

"I know that, but remember when we had that chat the other morning? You were telling me a little about you and I'd told you a lot about me. I thought that you Cahaliths liked to share stories. I tell you one and you tell me one, isn't that it?"

"So what do you want to know?" Tanith shrugged her question at me, peering into the gloom

"That's a good question, what do I want to know? How about the fact that you've joined us in a sporty little car and now you're in a 'less flashy' vehicle? How's that happen?"

"I was waiting for someone to notice that. Simply put, my family is extremely wealthy, hence why I can afford two cars. I don't really like to shout about it, save for the fact I'm in the Lamborghini. When you've got that kind of money available, your friends aren't really friends."

"They're friends with your bank balance."

"Precisely. My dad is a very successful businessman and my mother was a model. Now that she's a bit older, she runs an agency, instead of posing in front of the camera so much, but what dad didn't bring into the family income, mum managed to do."

"Ah, so you lived a bit of a jet set lifestyle early in your life. Any brothers and sisters to share that with?"

"Just me. I wouldn't say that we had expensive holidays all the time around the world, but it was more of an education – visiting ruins of Machu Pichu, Greece, Rome, Japan - a lot of cultural things, but the only difference was that we went back to a fancy hotel at the end of the day."

"Compared to my occasional wet weekend on Barry Island, that seems a joy."

"We never went on that many, because my parents worked so hard. When we did go away, we made it for a couple of weeks at a time and kept it family orientated, with my parent's wants to see the world in mind."

"I can see why you keep in contact with them – they need to hear from you that you're ok, as much as you need to hear they are alright. It's kind of like your grounding, isn't it."

"Even though they're working all the time, we are pretty close. Any time they do get off, they try to make some time for each other, or even for me. They throw themselves into family life as hard as they throw themselves into their work." She opened a door under the stairs and pointed at the far wall. "Here, shine that torch over there." She indicated the gas and electricity meter. I pointed the torch, as directed, allowing Tanith to jot down further details.

"How do you cope now, with the journalism? I mean, it's a case that you can't travel to all that far away, if you're chasing up a scoop, after all, with the commitments to the pack. Doesn't it cramp your style?"

"Well, instead of doing investigative journalism, I just do things that don't require me travelling. I can always make contact with people through the phone and internet and I can send my stories all over the world, as required."

"But your style has changed. You go on about the internet, which I'm afraid is something I do not understand all that much." Tanith shut the door and replaced her pen and paper in her bag. She pulled out a metal bar, approximately two feet long, with a cross-bar at the top and I raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you use to fend off muggers?"

"Well, if the mood takes me. But we need to look outside now." We walked outside and found a small inspection cover, which I flipped open. From there, Tanith located the socket of the bar on the stopcock. "Watch the meter and if it starts to count up, we've got a problem. If it doesn't move, everything is well."

"And if it starts to count down?"

"Then we get paid by the water board for the water we use, I guess." We both laughed as she turned the screw, checking that the meter didn't move.

"Did you ever think of writing our adventures down? I mean, it wouldn't be very good reading to someone not in the know, but as a Cahalith, you could tell the stories at gatherings, which would really earn you some brownie points."

"You know, I've never really thought about it." She smiled at the concept, wondering if it could work out. "It might be something that I could try, but would anyone other than us ever read them?" She packed away the tool and kicked the cover shut, making another note in her book.

"Maybe it would help for your grounding, to make sure that you remember who you are. Kind of like me with the post, Harvey with his running and Nadia with her singing."

"Maybe it would be, but perhaps the grounding would come from other stories, as opposed to tying both parts in together?" We replaced the boards over the door and made it look like we'd not been in there, before hopping over the back fence and making our way back toward where Tanith had parked the car.

"Of course, that would be a problem – there isn't anywhere to park the cars around here. We'll have to do something about that, if we're going to have this place as our own."

"Cars? Well, that's if both of your cars are going to be parked there. Nadia has a motorbike, but I wouldn't know where to start if I tried to drive."

"Harvey might have a car, I've not asked him. I just want to make sure that there's enough space, should we need it. I wouldn't be parking both of my cars there all the time, it's quite exposed."

"That's one of the things I've never considered. Perhaps the spirits would keep unsavoury types away. They were keeping their distance from the cottages, but I might have the have a word with the old woman on the upper floor at some point."

"Old woman? You mean that someone is living there?"

"No, she's a spirit. For now, it seems that she's a little old lady that sits in a rocking chair in one of the bedrooms. I'll have to talk to her at some point, particularly if we'll be changing that room. Perhaps with the windows boarded up, she feels trapped, these things can get delicate."

"Just a thought, Gareth – don't try sorting it out on your own. Not after last time." As we walked across the fields, Tanith playfully bumped into me with her shoulder, sending me off balance.

"What? That spirit was a lot more complex than I've ever dealt with. As far as trial and error goes, it was a big error, but we got away with it, didn't we?" The images of the mother spirit grabbing baby spirits and engulfing them haunted my vision as we walked. "You took a nasty smack from that thing, didn't you? Why did you jump in front of me?"

"I'll be alright, it was barely a scratch. Besides, in that scenario, we needed your skills more than mine." She smiled and hopped over a gate, walking off up the road, toward her car. I climbed over the gate and as I descended the other side, I looked up at the outline of the main building of the hospital, where I knew we would have to return before much longer. Our business was unfinished and something would need to be done.

"Any idea how long it would be before we'd be able to use the cottages?"

"I'm not sure, but I can ask a few questions of people that might know." Tanith got in the car and we drove back home, a little closer to moving into a proper home for the pack.


	4. Chapter 4

**Into The Darkness**

**Chapter 3**

Back at my house in St. John's, the four of us gathered up and discussed a few developments. The cottages would need a little more work, before being habitable, Tanith and Nadia knew a few people that we could talk to. They came back and gave us news that they could get us sorted reasonably soon, with services and some contractors to check over the property. We would just have to wait, which suited me, because I'd become attached to this house and couldn't bring myself to leave just yet.

A few days later, Nadia gathered us in the lounge – she had been cross checking some records with Harvey and they had a few findings to present to us.

"We'll have to go in again. In theory, the more times we go in, the weaker the opposition will be and the deeper we will get into the hospital." Nadia summed up her findings, which was mostly background of former patients.

I sat up and placed my mug on the coffee table. "Granted, the defeated spirits are unlikely to be able to manifest again so soon. If they are borne of corruption, they will retreat to the depths and aim to rebuild and reinforce. To defeat them and prevent them from resurfacing, would be to root out the corruption from which they are born." I sighed, rubbing at the stubble on my chin. "Of course, there could be the more powerful ones just controlling the ambient spirits."

"On the subject of what we need to do, I was thinking that we need to pay tribute to those that died here. They have been buried without ceremony and many of their names have been stricken from the records." Tanith seemed quite passionate about those victims that had been resident of the hospital, through no fault of their own.

"What sort of tribute? Some sort of benefit concert in the grounds of the hospital?" Nadia seemed serious about this, but I couldn't help but think there might be a trace of sarcasm there.

"No, something similar to a war memorial – a stone sculpture, with the names of the people carved on it. Perhaps a fountain, or something, that would make the grounds look nice, while seeking peace for the restless spirits. How does that sound?"

"Hmm, it could work, if we can achieve balance – we would need to get a lot of work done there first, to wrestle the buildings toward controlled. At the moment, they are far too dangerous." I thought Tanith's idea was fantastic, but at the moment, I could not see it, as we had too much work to do - too much of the hospital remained unexplored and potentially dangerous.

"Well, regardless of that, we would need to make a move on the Hisil, since that is where the spirits are most restless and where we would have the greatest impact. Gareth, when would you say is it best to go in?" Nadia turned to me and all eyes regarded me for my wise council.

"Well, the Hisil is the opposite of here – midnight is as bright in the Hisil as Noon here. I'd say that going there at night would be the best bet. Scouting and supplies would be needed, though. The centre of the hospital is the point of power and undoubtedly where the spirits draw their power from." I sighed, knowing that we would have to attend the hospital in the Hisil at night, to get a decent chance of calming the more volatile entities there in one sweep.

"Right, I would suggest we go tonight, then."

"Actually Nadia, could we make it tomorrow night? I have work in the morning and a day off the day after. That would give me time to recover." I was braced, as Harvey shot me a look. To my right, Tanith visibly tensed, which felt strangely comforting.

"Sure, we can go tomorrow night. We can spend tonight on the Malvern's, then you can work, we can sleep and prepare, before going in for the night. We will need supplies and anything else that is needed, we can pick up tomorrow." As the pack agreed, I stood up and headed into the kitchen, throwing a couple of bottles of Jack in my backpack, so that I was ready for a trip to our local nature reserve.

I'd always been good at dealing with the cold weather – a natural side effect of working the occasional evening helping dad in the driving rain with uncooperative sheep. You learned not to complain and so after a while, the cold just stops bothering you. Since undergoing the first change, it seemed to be even less of a bother and even in the early part of the year; I had been wandering about in frosts and snowfall without the proper winter clothing and had barely noticed any ill effect. Now it just seemed natural to walk around wearing a snug, but not small T-Shirt, which I seemed to be filling out a little better.

I was finally finding my comfort zone with the pack and while there were tensions with Harvey, I understood that he meant well. Nadia regarded my counsel on spiritual matters with a sense that I knew more about it than she did. I was the so called expert here and while I would hold her experience of being a musician above my knowledge of spiritual and Ithaeur matters, I could not deny that I had received better training on this front.

The past few days had passed pretty quickly and the only real time I'd had to rest and relax seemed to have been when I was sleeping. I got out of the car in the now familiar visitors car park, which was deserted tonight and I stretched my arms out, easing some of the day's tension. As I started walking towards the grassland and the open hills, I suddenly hit the floor, as I was bowled over again by Tanith, clearly enjoying her wolf form. I rolled over onto my back and she playfully rolled with me, pinning me, before nuzzling my neck and running off, jumping the fence and out onto the grass. Lying there for a few moments, I saw Harvey shift into his Urshul form, the giant beast of a wolf making powerful lopes and disappearing into the dusk.

"Gareth, are you alright?" Nadia queried, looking at me in a puzzled fashion. I sat up, rubbing my face and checked my pack, making sure that the integrity of the bottles was preserved.

"I am now, thanks." Standing up, I shouldered my pack and headed on over the fence and into the wilds of the Worcestershire countryside. The fading light and the new moon was robbing my eyesight, so as I jogged off after Nadia, I bulked up my form, taking on my 'near-man'. "I should learn to expect that from Tanith – these hills bring out a sense of playfulness in her."

"Yeah, but you've got to drop the serious facade every now and again. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

"Nice guy, that Jack." I pulled one of the bottles free and took a swig of the rye whisky within, before offering Nadia the bottle. She shook her head, to which I shrugged. "Sorry for causing all that shit the other morning, by the way."

"What shit? You mean that with you and Harvey?"

"Yeah, it needn't have gotten that far. It was just a discussion and I should have just walked away."

"I think that might have made it worse. Look, I made the decision and it's finished now. You do your postal route for your own reasons. Sure, he might be a little bitter about not being able to pursue his human life, but he'll come around. Come on, let's catch up with the two reprobates." We headed further from the beaten track, to our more favoured spot on the hills, in a lea below the Worcestershire Beacon. The cover here kept our activities quiet and every now and again, we could decide to run to the top of the beacon or even the North Hill, for a bit more of a run out. Here, there was a gnarled old oak tree, which we all recognised instantly and knew as a marker for us to meet at, even if we were in forms that didn't allow us to communicate with one another. Nadia sighed as she approached the tree and noted that neither Tanith nor Harvey was there. "I'll take the north, you head south and just call for them. We'll meet up back at the tree in fifteen minutes." I nodded and dumped the backpack under the tree, before heading up the slope, over the rough ground.

"Harvey! Tanith!" I called into the night, not receiving any response, as expected. The ground was damp, but the night was quite clear. What little moonlight there was became amplified by the night-sight afforded to me in my improved form. It felt strange being on the hills alone, despite the fact that they were large enough to lose any one of us in. After a few minutes, I snuck back down the hill and lay in wait near the tree, but far enough away not to be obvious.

Sure enough, a few moments later, a wolf came trotting down the hill from the north. The red coat unmistakably Tanith and she walked around for a moment, checking the surroundings, spotting my bag with the booze in. Reasoning that there are roads relatively close on the east and west sides of the lea, she started to ascend the hill to the south, where I had been sent to find her. A chance for revenge had presented itself and I followed, carefully picking my steps, so as not to draw attention to myself.

I stuck to the tree line and watched as she trotted about, quietly barking, but not full out howling – the sound of proper howls could probably be heard all the way to Worcester and it could cause quite a stir, so we had learned. Suddenly, Tanith started to run south, possibly thinking about running the length of the hills. I stepped from around the tree and putting my fingers in my mouth, I tried to whistle. Sadly, despite all my time working on the farm, this was one of the skills that I had failed to master. After a few tries, I gave up and whistled with just pursed lips. Her ears pricked as she heard me and skidding to a stop, she looked around. Eventually catching sight of me, she ran back towards me. I braced myself for the leaping tackle that she was used to inflicting on me by now. It never came and she stopped at my feet. If it were possible for a wolf to laugh, she would have been. I looked down at her and realised that I had flinched as she got close.

"You pain in the arse, Tanith." The look on her face was dejected, but it quickly turned to joy, as I crouched down and stroked her fur. "Either I'm good at hiding, or you're bad at looking."

"I don't need to look, remember. I know where you are if you're close enough." She said, stepping up to her human form, leaving me crouched down at the ground, looking confusedly at her thighs.

"Well, let's go back to the tree and see if Nadia has found Harvey then." I stood up and brushed some dirt off my jeans.

"You know, I think that look suits you, Gareth." Tanith commented, as we headed back.

"You're looking at me in the dark, as a human. I'll bear that in mind, but thanks anyway." We got back to the tree and I grabbed another finger of Jack, idly passing the time, while we waited for Nadia and Harvey to make their presence felt. I offered the bottle to Tanith, who refused. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long to get the pack back together, as Harvey came sprinting over the crest of the hill and descended into the lea. Nadia, in her wolf form was not far behind and we all gathered around the base of the venerable tree.

"We've had a chance to get to know one another now, but there's still something missing. If we're going to be a pack, we'll need to identify ourselves. People coming into our territory aren't just going to hear 'you're now in the territory of The Pack', because that won't work. Has anyone got any ideas?" This met with a chorus of mutters that no-one had been thinking about it really. Nadia held her head in her hands for a few moments.

"Alright, it doesn't have to be now, but we've got to come up with something – it's our identity, like a name for a band – we couldn't just go around calling ourselves Nadia, Tanith, Harvey and Gareth, could we?"

"Okay, so what are we doing tonight then, if we're not sitting about under the oak? I fancy a hunt again." Harvey suggested, eager to use his time well.

"You know, since we're doing a little pack bondage, we should probably head out into the Hisil and see if we can get a powerful spirit to join forces with us. What are you all laughing for?" various smiles and smirks had crept across the faces of the pack and eyebrows had been raised at my slip.

"You might want to look up the meaning of the word 'bondage', Gareth. I pray that you mean 'bonding', because I've got all sorts of wrong images going through my head right now." Tanith said through fits of laughter, wiping away a tear.

"I don't understand, what's going on? I've missed a joke here."

"Jeez, Gareth, you have led a sheltered life. Try picturing werewolves in cat suits, armed with whips, paddles and other such stuff. That would be pack bondage. Far too kinky, besides, it would only cause trouble, as we all know, right?" Nadia declared, shrugging off the giggles and putting on a more serious face, momentarily.

One of the main rules about werewolves that has been passed down for generations, since the First Pack, is that werewolves cannot mate with one another. They must take human partners and procreate with them. The failure to do this results in the concentration of potent werewolf blood in the progeny. Our connection with the spirit world causes a particularly nasty spirit to inhabit the mother and snuff out the life of the unborn child, while it takes up residence for the duration.

When the mother comes to give birth, she just bleeds, or gives birth to a stillborn baby. In the Hisil, it is much worse, as the powerful (did I mention evil?) spirit rends its way out of the mother in a reverse-caesarean. Then it runs away, to the darkest depths of the Hisil, to grow up.

Then, for some reason, it hunts down mommy and daddy. These are the sort of ghost stories told to warn young werewolves, who are a little too old to believe in Hansel and Gretel. None of us seemed willing to try and test this theory.

"Yeah, I know about that, but it's not what I meant!" I swear they were out to get me for this.

"Okay, so what were you suggesting about a spirit then?"

"Well, every pack tends to attempt to enlist the help of a totem spirit – something to guide us and help us, for a price. We can give them access to the essence that the hospital will provide us with, for example, or other similar things."

"Hmm, that sounds like something that we could use – what would you suggest, Gareth?" Nadia regarded my suggestion and seemed ready to take it on board.

"Well, shall we head to the Hisil and see what sort of spirits are there – hopefully we'll find something suitable, that we can talk around to our side."

"Alright, why not lead us through to the Hisil, Mr. Ithaeur." Nadia gestured for me to begin and I prepared myself. Slipping my sight out of focus, I looked between the lines of the material world. I found the barrier called the Gauntlet, the intangible silk strands showing themselves, just beyond my normal vision. Picking a way slowly through the webbing between the worlds, I guided the pack across into the dawn-like conditions of the shadow realm. The gnarled oak tree looked much the same here, standing, gazing up at the sky, between the mighty hills. It seemed quiet here, without the occasional passing car to remind us of how close to humanity that we had been moments ago.

"So what are we going to find around here? It's not like we'll find some wolf spirits, is it?" Harvey queried to the group at large.

"I doubt it. Why, did you want some sort of predator?" Tanith asked.

"It seems right to have something like that, as opposed to, say a rabbit or a squirrel." Harvey raised a valid point, but I couldn't resist a quick dig.

"Squirrels can be vicious buggers – just you try going for their nuts!" As we walked away from the tree collectively, Harvey suddenly stopped, shaking his head. I turned my head, flashed him a wry smile and carried on my climb, toward the beacon. "But there should be plenty of predators around here, this is a pretty good ecosystem. Foxes, hawks, stoats, weasels, just to think of a few off the top of my head."

"So far, the hawk sounds like the only option, the others all sound a little too much like scavengers, Gareth." Harvey strode out of the woods and looked up at the monument on the pinnacle of the hill, peering about to see if he could spot any suitable spirits.

"I like the idea of a predator, but I'm not sure what we should go for. Any other birds of prey around here? Maybe an eagle or something." Nadia seemed to have an idea forming and she was putting her feelings out there for my benefit mostly.

"I don't think there are any eagles in Britain, are there? That's a real shame though." Tanith mused, lying down on the hillside among the heathers. "Doesn't the sky look weird around here?" She commented as the clouds wheeled overhead, exposing the light blue of the sky, flecked with navy blue swirls, making it look like a cloudy marble.

"I've spent what must be months in the Hisil and I've never considered what the sky looked like here, except that it's dark at day and light at night." I allowed myself to fall back into the heather and fidgeted around, adjusting the scenery and trying to get comfy. "How on earth do you manage to do that without getting a fucking stick in tender areas?!" I pulled a whole heather plant out of the ground and discarded it to one side.

"It's quite simple, if you look, before you plonk down on the undergrowth," Tanith laughed at my misfortune, while considering the shadowy heavens. Nadia found herself a patch and lay down on the other side of Tanith and on seeing this, Harvey jogged down from the hilltop and found himself a place as well.

"I'm not sure that deer live around here any more, but there might be some older spirits around." I mulled over some thoughts aloud.

"So if the spirits were of things that used to live here, we might get a wolf?" Harvey seemed to perk up at this news.

"Difficult to say, really. I'd guess that if they've not been on the material for a while there, then there's less chance of having one here, as it might have moved on, or fallen victim to some of the less than savoury things that live here."

"So the hunters become the hunted?"

"Why not? While they were hunted in the human realm, their spirits will have been harangued by Jagglings, Gafflings and other such stuff – look at that abomination that we dealt with at Powick, for example. You don't know who or what might be out there."

"So, what else can you see, Gareth? You've got more experience here than us." Nadia pointed out, sweeping her arm in the direction of the other hills. "We've got a while, but the way you were talking, it's for the best that we get it done now.

"Look, a Kestrel!" I nodded at the sky and a dark shape was picked out above the heathers, barely half a mile away. The swift beat of its wings held it up, hovering above the hillside, intently focused on the ground. "Such a graceful creature, even in the Hisil," I noted. With no regard for itself, the bird plunged towards the ground and both Harvey and Tanith sat up, watching intently. I cracked my knuckles and sat up, craning my neck for a better view. Just like the material bird, this ethereal reflection of a creature stood there in the heather, tearing strips of meat from the fresh kill. It turned to look at us and with a keening screech, it launched into the air, flying towards the woodland.

"That would be a nice bird to try for, but would we be able to find it in the woods?" Nadia turned to me, as Harvey and Tanith nodded in agreement at Nadia's declaration. I could only shrug, never having tried to capture a bird of prey before.

"We could go for a walk and see, that's about the best I can offer you." I tried to give enough of an indication, but after all, I was still learning, as were the pack.

"I'll run round the back of the woods and move through, to meet in the middle. We'll find it." Harvey declared, breaking into a jog down the hill and wheeling away to the right. The other three of us made our way quite a bit slower, picking our way toward the forest.

"Not the tactic that I'd have suggested, but there we go." I kept my vision fixed upon the woods, where I had seen the kestrel spirit disappear only moments before.

"Give him a break, Gareth. His heart's in the right place and he's making an effort."

"Nadia, I'm not saying he isn't. I'm merely stating that if he gets close to the spirit, he won't be able to speak to it any easier than you talking to a real kestrel. If it takes flight, he won't be able to catch it, no matter how fast he runs."

"Anyone would think you feel threatened by him, Gareth." Tanith chimed in as Nadia suppressed a smirk.

"Perhaps I've still got an issue with him from the other morning?"

"Then perhaps you'd better just drop it and move on?" Nadia took her turn in the conversation and poked me in the side as she strode past. I had just been told with little uncertainty that she was unimpressed with the way I felt over it all. Suitably reprimanded, I followed down the slope.

We descended the hillside and entered the woods, which was a particularly dark environment in the Hisil, night or day. The trees had been allowed to grow unattended without human micro management on this side of the gauntlet and some oaks had been given the chance to become ancient and twisted, while ashes and birches stood tall, creating a high, dense canopy. Unusually, the footpaths appeared swept of leaves and almost well kept. Somehow out of place – a reflection of the realm that it mirrored across the intangible barrier.

The three of us spread out a little, keeping within sight of one another and Tanith co-ordinated us toward Harvey, whom we still could not see. I tried to watch my step, treading carefully over large roots that formed the forest floor.

"Here he comes!" Tanith hissed to us and as she pointed, the advancing shape of Harvey was obvious, making great strides through the woods towards us. Ahead of him, the spectral shape of the kestrel was flying, beating its wings furiously. It sighted us and sensed a trap, veering upwards to the safety of the canopy. Harvey leapt and his massive arms barely missed the flapping wings and he landed on the floor, falling into a roll and looking around frantically for the quarry. I looked past him, watching the kestrel fly off into the trees, completing its escape.

"Welcome back, Harvey. Any luck?" Nadia asked, walking over to the large man, hunched shoulders and one fist on the floor, as he knelt.

"A slight problem, but we'll get him next time."

"Oh, good. Any ideas when this will be, Harvey?" She did not look impressed, but then again, she was not as angry as the elder of her tribe – the Storm Lords – had been on that first day.

"What was that?!" Tanith was looking up at the canopy and pointing, as Harvey tried to regain his composure. I turned to look and could see nothing, trying to follow where Tanith was pointing. Nadia and Harvey wandered over, the incident forgotten, at least for now.

I strained to look into the trees, with shafts of light penetrating the dense cover of the canopy, making it very difficult to spot anything at all. "I don't know what it is – all I can see is trees, Tanith."

"No, over there – it's landed now." Tanith pointed out a large feathered mass that blended so subtly with the tree it has nestled upon, that I would just have passed it by again. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I picked out that this was an owl, with shades of browns, grey and the occasional flash of white in its plumage.

"Wow, you're beautiful, aren't you?" As I stepped forward one pace, to get a better view, the eyes on the magnificent bird snapped open – brilliantly vivid orange, with huge black pupils, taking in every detail of me and the pack. Quickly glancing at Nadia, she nodded excitedly and urged me forward.

"Um… okay." I looked up at the owl and smiled, before trying to talk to it – I felt such a lemon. "Hello, I am Gareth and I represent our pack. We would like to ask if you would bless us and act as our totem spirit, to guide us." The owl swivelled its neck turning its gaze upon me and the two orange discs regarded me silently. "We would be willing to offer you gifts – a proportion of our kills from the hunts in tribute and of course essence." Still, the owl watched me, unblinking, as if looking through me.

Suddenly, the words arrived in my head, without the creature moving its beak to say them to me. It was almost guttural, but somehow old and wizened. "Wolves feed owl… Owl help wolves… Yes." As I started to smile, it leapt forward and flew overhead, past the rest of the pack, to a chorus of "Oh great" and "not again". Instead of flying off and inviting us to pursue, the owl reached a stop on another branch and I walked past the pack, to regard it closely again.

"We have not yet hunted, but I can offer you some essence. Would that do for now?" I offered a hopeful expression toward the owl, palms upturned. I was hoping that if it agreed, I would know how to channel essence from myself to a spirit. I could feel the expectant looks of the pack, boring into my back, almost burning. Lifting my hand up towards the great bird, I stretched and looked for inspiration. Strangely, my fingers started to go numb, as if something had cut the blood supply off from them. As the tingling sensation started to creep down my hand, to the base of my fingers, I saw blue-white tendrils of light seep forth and start to drift towards the owl. These tendrils grew longer, still attached to my fingers and the tingling made its way further up my arm, passing the elbow.

As these silky threads approached the owl, it opened its beak and took the offering, pulling the feeling from my whole arm. There seemed to be a corona or halo of this blue-white light around the creature, which glowed as it feasted on what I presumed was my essence. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the ritual ceased and the owl let out a mighty screech, flapping its wings. In response, the whole forest seemed silent. Not just quiet, but deadly still, as if no thing, living or dead, dared move.

"Wolves hunt for owl… owl give power, knowledge and skill." It was almost as if the great bird was bowing to us all. Then it leapt from the tree branch, taking flight once again. As our eyes followed it, the halo around it flickered and it disappeared from view. The pack turned towards me and I looked at my hand, as if it was only this minute returned to me. I took a few faltering steps toward the pack, with a bewildered smile on my face.

"I think I need a drink." As I declared that to the pack, my knees gave way and I fell. The ground did not come to meet me, as Tanith and Harvey stepped in and prevented me from falling completely. They set me down at the base of a tree, allowing me to get some feeling back in my arm, which was completely numb, shoulder to fingertips.

"That's some of the weirdest shit I've ever seen. What did you do, Gareth? All this fucking sorcery with that… stuff coming out of your hand!" Harvey declared as he lowered me against the tree. I sat back and massaged my shoulder, trying to get the feeling back.

"Would it comfort you to know that I haven't got much of a clue myself?"

"You what?" Harvey stared at me in complete disbelief, as Tanith fumbled around in my backpack and grabbed the bottle of booze, which she tried to place in my left hand. No matter what I tried, I could not make my fingers work and grasp the bottle. I reached across and grasped it with my right, then considered the lid and offered it back to her, so that she could help, which drew a sigh.

"I'll keep that a secret then." I swigged the whisky and passed the bottle back to Tanith. "It might be something to do with essence, which I was told about in passing. That's like the stuff that feeds spirits, but everything has some. It's also why we want to control the hospital, because there's some sort of point of power in there." I cringed and grabbed at my shoulder, feeling the warmth of blood flow returning. "Somewhere in there, is a well, or spring, where we can gain access to more of this essence. That might also be why there are so many powerful spirits there."

"And the stuff with the owl? What was that about?"

"Well, I had no fresh meat to offer her… except for us, but I'm not about to suggest a werewolf burger. Essence is a fair compromise. If we hunt, we'll have to lay aside a part of, if not one of the kills, in a sort of tribute. She will give us some of her wisdom and skill in return."

"What do you mean, skill?"

"Maybe you'll be able to fly, Harvey. I think it will be similar to the sort of thing she's skilled with herself. If I were a spirit, I'd teach people how to be sarcastic."

"Well, that's a given. How are you feeling now?" Nadia stood there, turning back to me, after having looked around the clearing, hoping to see the owl once more.

"Better – the feeling's coming back now."

"What, you've just had a dead arm? Should have taken five minutes then, rather than sitting under the tree." Nadia's horrified gaze turned to Harvey and I bit my tongue, as there was no need to take this any further.

"No… just, no. If you're thinking what I think you're thinking about, Harvey!" Nadia pointed at Harvey, waggling her finger and chastising him. "Can you walk, Gareth? I'd quite like to get out of here."

"I think so. Listen to the forest, there's movement again." I hauled myself up, assisted by Tanith and we walked out of the woods again. Finding a convenient spot, I picked my way carefully through the gauntlet and we returned to the Malvern Hills by night.

Trudging back down the slope to the oak tree, the moonlight was briefly obscured by a large shadow passing overhead. We all turned to look at what was casting that shadow, without making a sound on the evening air, but could not see anything. As we turned and carried on walking, a familiar screeching sound could be heard from the trees that we walked towards. I could not help but smile, showing my pride.

"Now all we've got to do is come up with a name for the pack and we're set. Nice work, everyone." Nadia showed her pleasure and thanked us all for the part we had played. I tried to remind myself that everything happens for a reason.

"I've had a thought about the pack name. How about Running Free? None of us is particularly slow on their feet." Harvey suggested

"Hmm… I'm not sure it's really something that I can see working for us, to be honest, Harvey." Nadia declared.

"How about the Hunting Moons, then?" Tanith offered her thoughts to the conclave.

"Doesn't that sound a little like it favours my tribe?" I said, indicating the Hunters in Darkness. "Why not choose something more all-encompassing?"

"Spectral Moons or Spectral Wings?" Nadia put forward. This met with a discord from the rest of us and so she backed down from those suggestions.

"Shadow flight? No, that sounds a little too dark for us…" I thought aloud, rejecting my own idea. I was too busy chastising myself for lack of creativity when the idea of Gossamer Wings was tossed into the discussion.

"That is more than just a little queer. Should I put an order in for four neon pink sweaters now, or later?" Suggested Harvey. An uneasy silence descended over the group and then as one, we all started laughing amongst ourselves. Deciding that this was getting us nowhere, Tanith reached into my bag and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels. She took a generous pull, before passing it around. I was glad to find that when it arrived back with me, there was still some left. I shrugged and took a pull, before dropping the bottle at the base of the tree, following it with my bag.

"If we're going anywhere, we need to work on something that gives mystery, yet grace and poise. Let's try and focus on something that we all do, yeah?"

"Well, we can all go into the Hisil and we can all change to wolves." Nadia surmised.

"Alright, well if people know we're werewolves, we don't need to announce it, do we? So that leaves the Hisil, which is kind of an ethereal place… What about the owl, should we focus on her, since she's our totem spirit?" I tried to focus and was getting frustrated by my brain letting me down.

"I like that, let's use Ethereal." Said Tanith, clicking her fingers at a brainwave.

"I was going to say 'Spiritual', but if you want."

"Ethereal Wardens?" Harvey suggested.

"No, that sounds too aggressive."

"Sorry, I didn't realise we were running a crèche here." His face split into a wicked grin as Nadia shot him a filthy look.

"What about messengers? I mean I've got my singing, Tanith's a journalist and Gareth's a postman, so that's three quarters of it covered," Nadia surmised.

"Leaves me out though, so it kind of blows the 'all encompassing' side of the plan." Harvey didn't seem as riled by being left out as I thought he would have been, he merely stated the fact.

"You're not left out, Harvey. Look at your speed, who can we compare you to? No human, that's for sure, so what about Mercury, the messenger of the Gods?" Tanith threw out the idea, hoping for a positive response.

"Yeah, that could work. I'm pretty quick on my feet." Seemingly satisfied, Harvey jumped up and down, limbering himself up for some more running.

"Unless anyone has any objections then," Nadia looked around the group, checking to see if anyone had anything to add to the discussion. "I declare the four of us to be known as the Ethereal Messengers."

"May our messages transcend barriers." Tanith said, raising the bottle. I shot her a look, for grabbing my booze again, but echoed the sentiments, as the bottle finally made its way to me.

"I think that we should go for a hunt tonight. It's been a few days, after all." Nadia looked through the trees, south toward the smaller hills. "Harvey, you've been looking forward to this all night, so why not lead us?" As a massive grin spread across his face and he ran to the crest in elation. Dutifully, we followed and waited for his plan.

"Owl is a fine hunter, wouldn't you agree? Let us use her skills to bring her back a fine haul tonight. Perhaps a deer?"

"If we find one, sure, but I'm not sure we will. Maybe rabbits, squirrels, a fox perhaps. We'll just have to see." I shrugged, noting what I had seen in previous trips here, before looking over the landscape. It was mostly heathers, but with the occasional tree springing out of the hillside, offering very little cover.

"Alright, so if we spread out, with Tanith and Nadia on the sides and myself and Gareth in the middle. What we'll do is surround them, where we can enclose them for the kill. If they run, I'll sort them out." Marching off, we obeyed his orders and he shifted to his Urshul form, loping off into the heather. I followed, spreading further to his left and staying low, trying not to advertise myself to anyone or anything watching us.

Nadia and Tanith spread around the flanks and watched, listening for Harvey's instructions, as I waited. I observed as a few rabbits moved away, but these were not of any interest to Harvey and he was set on the idea of a venison dinner. As one of the rabbits bounded over a grassy tuft, a fox snapped at it, taking one of their number for its own sustenance.

We moved slowly for what must have been half an hour and still no sign of any deer, nor the instruction from Harvey to go for anything less. Away to my left, beyond Nadia, I spotted some sort of game bird, picking its way dozily through the heather. Slowly and deliberately, I moved towards it, trying to keep my movements fluid, not wanting to give myself away, thus scaring off the prey. I lay myself down among the heather and waited, as it walked ever nearer.

My sight enhanced by being in my near-man form, I saw the bird encroach almost within arm's reach. Without thinking, my hand darted out and grasped the bird around the neck. It was a female pheasant, beautiful, but soon to be just dinner. I quickly wrung the neck of her and thanked her for presenting us with a meal. With the bird in my hand, I crawled through the heather, back to where Harvey had told me to be.

"Where's Gareth?!" Harvey's anger was evident, as I arrived back, still staying below the line of the heather, listening to him stomping around. I waited for him to walk past me, then stood up.

"I'm right here, relax."

"Relax? What the hell have you been playing at?!"

"I was bored. I saw a pheasant, so I went and got it. You were making too much noise for a hunter – any dear would have been scared off long before." I held up the pheasant, as evidence.

"I've not seen anything to hunt, tonight."

"There are plenty of rabbits out there, plus the odd pheasant, duck, even a fox that I've seen this evening. You've just got to know where to look, plus have the patience for it."

"Can you do something that doesn't undermine me, for a change?"

"Can you not object to everything I do?" By this point, Tanith and Nadia had both approached us. They seemed ready to try and break up a fight, though I thought that unnecessary.

"How about we both just stop trying to get at one another? We can't go on if you two are going to keep sniping at one another, after all." Nadia had seen enough and in the book of the Messengers, a thick black line had now been drawn, as the alpha had spoken.

Harvey led the hunt for another hour or two and we returned with a few animals – a brace of rabbits, a squirrel and of course the pheasant. We ate a little and left the squirrel for Owl at the base of our tree, before we left the site and headed home for the evening.

The next afternoon, I returned from work and went straight to bed. When I woke up from my all too brief nap, I was greeted by a great smell of cooking wafting up the stairs from the kitchen. I ambled down and rooted around in the fridge for a drink and said hello to Tanith, who was cooking.

"So, what's on for lunch, then?"

"Lunch was hours ago, Gareth. I'm knocking up some pasta, because it's quick and easy." She turned around, seeing me standing there dressed in only my shorts and holding the bottle of milk. "I don't care if it is your house, you will need more clothes than that, if you're going to eat with us though." I spotted my cap lying on the worktop where I had left it when I came in. I slapped it on my head and grinned at Tanith. She laughed and pointed towards the stairs. "You know what I mean!" My face fell and I trudged back upstairs, taking the bottle of milk with me.

Since my first change, I've noticed that my appetite has changed radically – if ever food is on offer, I accept and only after a sustained session of consumption do I ever feel full. Like when eating burgers from most fast-food outlets, you never feel satisfied for long. While we drank quite heavily, our higher metabolisms enabled us to remove the alcohol from our systems much quicker, without feeling the effects so much. When I came down, the large vat of pasta was still bubbling away and the four of us gathered around the table to eat. Feeding a pack of four werewolves was always a logistical challenge, but Tanith had gotten used to it and the Bolognese was incredible, as we polished off a good few helpings each.

"Alright, we've got what we need to head back to the hospital, right?" Nadia picked up her glass of wine and sat back a little, to give herself time for the food to go down. Just because we were werewolves and burned through it quicker didn't mean we had any more space in there.

"I feel much better, now that we've got Owl to watch over us. Just something else on our side, when friends will be hard to come by in places like that."

"How do you all feel about going in through the front door this time?"

"Well, we should get there this time, even if we go via the Hisil. Gareth, how long do you think it will take for that spirit to re-spawn?" Harvey asked.

"Re-spawn?" I looked confused and then left the table to help myself to some more pasta.

"Like in gaming – you kill a bad mob and after a while it'll reappear."

"Sorry Harvey, I've never had a computer – never heard of anything like that, I'm afraid." I gathered my thoughts and sat back down. "Well, it'll probably retreat into the Hisil and wait a while, feasting on essence, regaining its strength. We might have gotten lucky and killed it, but then again, it might regain more control if we remove some spirits that were having a bad influence on one another. No guarantees, I'm afraid."

"Good enough for me." Harvey sat back, drinking and thinking.

"Tanith, anything you wish to bring up before we move in?"

"I'd hope no-one would want to bring up anything – I've worked very hard on this dinner! Seriously though, I've got nothing to add, except you three have got washing up to do." She finished up her last morsel of pasta and bolted for the lounge, giggling.

I merely sat there, still moving steadily through my seconds. "If she cooks like this again, the washing up is a small price to pay." I declared.

Chores done, we headed out of the front door, Nadia in full leathers mounting her impressive looking bike, leaving the rest of us to ride in Tanith's car. It seemed like such a waste, just a few short miles through the country lanes for such a machine. But then again, we had a job to do. The former hospital's main building came into view after a few minutes and Tanith pulled up, allowing us all to rejoin Nadia. Despite Tanith's aggressive driving, Nadia had not had a chance to be lost, over a few short miles of country lane that we had all learned well enough. I spent most of the journey trying not to ruin her back seat with that lovely meal she had prepared. Tanith moved to the boot of the car and took out a thermos flask, which she walked over to Nadia with. The unmistakable smell of Alice's mushroom tea wafted over on the evening breeze.

"You sure you wouldn't like a cup, Gareth?" Tanith offered, a cheeky little smirk crossing her face.

"Pass, thank you. Why are you two drinking that stuff, anyway? Surely I've served as a guinea pig for that and that ought to put anyone off." I tried to focus on the job at hand, but remembered the bitter-sweet taste that the soup had with it.

"Alice said that we should use some to help us see what we need to." I raised an eyebrow and pulled my face at the thought of it, to which Tanith laughed. "Don't worry, we won't drink as much as you, nor as quick." Tanith raised the plastic cup, taking a sip, as Nadia drank hers slowly, almost savouring the flavour.

"Hmm… I'm not sure I could manage a whole mug of the stuff." Nadia decided, smacking her lips.

"Lightweight." Harvey nudged Nadia jovially in the ribs, bouncing lightly on his toes, ready for some action. Nadia glanced at him in calm silence.

"How much is left in that flask, Tanith?" As she was putting it back in the car, she gave the Thermos a quick shake.

"Maybe a decent mug full." I tried my damnedest to avoid bursting out laughing and struggled to regain my composure in front of my packmates.

"That's not something you should have to threaten anyone with, Nadia. Just the taste is bad enough."

"This time, we'll get in and see what's really there," Nadia declared, leading the rest of us up the gravel drive. Weeds had sprung up and the gravel was now intermingled with the topsoil, losing the neat impression of an English country manor that you would have expected. Mother nature was acting to reclaim the land from the order of humanity that had established itself.

As we approached the hospital building again, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, as if something were amiss. I dropped to all fours as I prepared myself, assuming my near-wolf form. I sniffed the air and could pick up the almost tin-like aftertaste of the mushroom tea, provided by Alice a few days previously, though there was little surprise that I could pick this up. I looked slightly to the right, where Harvey was limbering up, presumably ready to unleash his Gauru form on the corrupt spirits of this realm. As I looked to the left, I spotted a familiar looking figure looming out of the dark. I almost swallowed my tongue, as the visage of my deceased brother, Iwan, marched purposefully towards me.

"Have you come for me, brother?" Impassively, he stood to attention, focusing on a point just beyond my tail.

"You alone have brought me here, Gareth. Clearly our fates are still bound together." I drew myself back up to my hind legs and suppressed the wolf for the moment. I was surprised that he had recognised me in a form that looked nothing like he had seen before, yet he smiled, knowingly.

My mind returned to the day I left home. For some reason, I stopped at Iwan's room and walked in, looking at the small shrine that mum had made. A Welsh flag was hung there, with "Cymru am Byth" (Wales Forever), the motto of the Welsh Guards emblazoned across it. I looked at the pictures of Iwan and saw the medal that he had won while he was still alive, proudly displayed next to the one that was presented to us after he had died. Without thinking, I pocketed the box with his campaign medal and left, beginning my journey into the wider world. I couldn't think where I had put the medal now and for the first time in years, I really needed to see it.

"Forgive me, brother. I took your medal. I should not have removed it." I guess you are bound to it, so you have come here because of it.

"Now is not the time for this, boy. You will know what to do and where to do it. Now, I am here to help you with this fight. I regret, but my experience does not stretch far in here, but I've learned a lot since leaving home... as have you, it seems." He nodded, indicating behind me and I turned, instinctively. He walked up behind me and placed one of his massive hands on my shoulder. His voice was barely a whisper, but I heard the words perfectly clear: "Cymru am Byth!"

While I watched my pack, trying to keep abreast of the goings on among them, I saw the walls of the asylum dissipate, giving way to verdant grassland and rolling plains. Something that may have meant a lot to me a long time ago, but for the moment only served to confuse my senses. Frantic, I looked around, trying to catch glimpses of my allies, as my consciousness fought to regain control from the deeper recesses of my being, not even aware of Iwan's presence any more.

A chill mist rolled across open hills, tracks among the heathers and grasses carved out only by the footsteps of generations. A black wolf prowled on one hill, watching stoically as soldiers dressed in red and silver marched, escorting unwilling peasants toward the coast. Slowly, the wolf turned and stalked away from this, only breaking into a run when he was sure that no-one was aware of his presence.

As he approaches a village, the wolf stands on his hind legs and resumes the form of a man – a thick black beard with a wisp of grey, his broad shoulders the only indication of the power that he has. His axe is carried limply – more for show, than actual combat. He may have been a woodsman once. His face looked eerily familiar, yet I could not really place it.

The conversation between this man and the head of the village sounded incredibly far away, even though I was stood a few feet from the werewolf. It was difficult to make out, but I thought the general thread of the conversation was to preserve the village, so that they may live on. The werewolf nodded agreement and a woven basket containing a young child is brought forth, the child's mother in uncontrollable tears. With barely a grunt, he takes the babe and walks solemnly out of the village, securing him to his back to run as a wolf once more.

I snapped back to Powick, covered in cold sweat, Iwan's hand still on my shoulder. Gently, I placed my hand on his. 'Iwan, you've given me something that I cannot possibly explain. I hope that I live long enough to make use of it.'

"We both will." With that, his hand released my shoulder and I became aware of my surroundings – the Hisil, Harvey standing there, looking confused and jumpy, while the two ladies looked rather spaced.

"Did anybody just see that?"

"Oh, you did as well, then." Harvey looked relieved to hear that I was still with us, as I turned to regard Tanith and Nadia

"And what about..?" I looked at the expression of a distant confused smile on Tanith's face and a similar, but steelier expression from Nadia. "Never mind, I'll talk to you about it later… much later."

As we walked into the hospital itself, I was overcome with this sense of trepidation once more and I looked around for Iwan, but he was no longer visible. I felt somehow comforted by the knowledge that he could not be far away.

The sounds of whispers were all around me as I crossed the threshold, though my pack mates seemed oblivious to it all. They seemed to be calling to me and I recognised Iwan's voice amongst them. The pack walked into the main atrium and looked around, keeping their wits sharp. As I moved my gaze around the room, I noticed a gaunt looking wolf stalking within the spirits that milled idly about. Sensing that she had caught my eye, she walked out of the main door. I followed, compelled as if by some unseen hand, turning my back on the pack. I could hear their questioning voices coming from a distance.

As I followed the wolf outside I noticed that this wolf was extremely thin, as if ill, or perhaps malnourished. Considering the surroundings, I was not surprised. Had the patient refused to eat, the nurses were probably not inclined to force feed their charges. She turned towards me and in a hoarse whisper commanded me:

"Kneel, child." Obediently, without any real thought for myself, I dropped to my knee and bowed my head slightly. "I will have your eyes and you will be mine, Gareth Dempsey." My mind jumped back over a year to the last time that a wolf stood over me and said something like that. I had not known at the time what was going on, so was powerless to resist. I fought and forced my head up, gazing into the black, almost dead eyes of the wolf before me.

Standing before me was a vision of Kamduis-Ur, the Death Wolf. She had been a member of the first pack, the children of Father Wolf and Mother Luna. To top it all, she was also a sister of Hiakon-Ur, the patron of my tribe, the Hunters in Darkness. Her gaunt features stared at me sardonically, as I dug deep within, just to lift my head to look her in the beady eye.

"I cannot be yours. My life is pledged to Hiakon-Ur and the Hunters in Darkness." Sweat pouring off my brow. I knelt before the Death-Wolf, trying to defiantly trying to stand, as my pack mates came after me. Furious, she struck out for me and scored her claws deep across the front of my shoulder, catching my lower jaw. I dropped back down to one knee, punching my fist into the floor to balance myself.

"You might just live long enough to regret those words, my boy. When you return, I _will_ have those eyes of yours. Do not think that I shall be so forgiving next time." She turned and stalked into the ether, crossing the gauntlet without even a gesture and I stood, wiping the blood from my lips.

"What the hell just happened?" The shocked excitement from my pack mates was intense, as the sounds rushed back to me and I was released from the spell.

"I think I was just head-hunted by the Bone Shadows. Perhaps saying no was a bad thing in this case." I turned back to the hospital and walked past my pack mates once more, spitting the remaining blood to the ground.

"Come on, I don't want to stand around waiting for her to come back, when we can be doing something to pass the time well enough." As one, the pack moved back through the front door of the hospital.

The events of that particular evening had a profound effect on me. The honour of being chosen by the Death Wolf, dubious as the timing may have been, mixed with the feelings about potentially dishonouring Hiakon-Ur, the Black Wolf. Throw in the re-opening of the twelve plus year old wounds from seeing my brother's spirit stand next to me and I suppose you could say that there was an emotionally charged atmosphere about my location. I took a deep breath, putting a lid of calm over my personal turmoil. If anyone in the pack noticed, it was most likely to be Tanith. Everyone remained quiet about the subject, either noticing my heightened emotion, or being eager to get down to business.

As we entered the corridor, I would not allow my gaze to sway from Tanith and Nadia. As they had sampled the mushroom tea from Alice, my view was that they were at the most risk. Harvey's task was to subdue them, should they give in to the rage within and mine was really as a lookout, since trying to calm down any Uratha from their enraged beast form would probably lead to me coming off worst.

The Hisil is a strange place - figments of the imagination can come to life and your very being can influence the changes within your field of vision. I've seen it before under the influence of the mushroom tea at the Mage's library and while I may wish to indulge my mind with this once more, I felt that more controlled situations would be preferable.

This time when we entered, the place looked familiar – like it was when we walked in almost a week ago. The large staircases flanking the room dominated the scene, while two reception desks were in a state of disrepair and clutter, while the rest of the room was large and empty. I stood around with Harvey, as the girls took in the sights from their own version of the green fairy.

"Are you nervous?" I asked Harvey, while we waited.

"I'm not sure what there is to be nervous of. Ask me later." Harvey threaded his fingers together and cracked his knuckles, loudly.

"That's a good way of looking at it. I thought that the Elders wouldn't have sent us here if they didn't think that we could deal with this place, right?"

"I hope you're right." His form rippled and he dropped to all fours, his huge part beast, part wolf form dominating the empty space of the foyer, as Nadia declared that we would go left. As a pack we moved into the hospital, exploring our way around the ground floor, which seemed to be mostly admin and filing rooms. There was the occasional room for 'socialising', where the residents could presumably sit down and see visitors, though I felt it unlikely that the patients would receive any. Writing off the ground floor as relatively safe and / or sane, we headed up the stairs, with me trying not to recall the young soldier who had bounced off the marble stairs in the past.

Heading left from this main landing, we found our way into the first proper wing, which had 'cells', consisting of a single medical bed, table, cupboard and very plain decoration. The occasional mournful spirit wandered listlessly around, but they were quickly deemed non-threatening.

The one room we came to had the door slightly ajar and Nadia cautiously pushed it open, unsure of what to expect. Vivid would be the best word to describe it, as the walls had become a vibrant, psychedelic mural, composed of various media, but all seemingly blended together. Like the Bayeux Tapestry, it told a story, though finding the beginning and the end proved to be problematic. The colours carried on up onto the ceiling and the entire available floor space was occupied as well. The nature of the spirit world had caused some of the pictures to become embossed, making the whole effect quite awe inspiring.

We trod carefully around the room, trying to take in the whole place, though there was no window. The only light source would have been a light, however a dangling piece of flex was suspended from the ceiling, without a bulb. Suddenly, Nadia squatted down next to the bed and peered under it.

"Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you." I peered into the darkness and saw a figure, no more than a young woman, possibly in her early twenties, as she cowered under the bed. I backed away a little, as four of us might be too much for her to bear. Eventually, Nadia convinced her to come out – the budding artist that lived in this windowless closet of a room. The plain, skinny girl, with unkempt appearance sat down on the bed, as Nadia talked and tried to get some answers. I felt something creep across my spine, as I watched the monologue from Nadia, with Tanith trying to offer assistance. Intrigued by what I assumed was a spiritual presence, I withdrew completely from the room, as the girl seemed no threat.

The floor of the corridor was dusty and it was clear that no living soul had been here for years. This had to be a reflection of what the world on the other side of the gauntlet looked. As I looked down the corridor, the black and white tiles of the floor seemed to drag my gaze toward the end of it. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes to try and force myself to focus on the room. Practically in a trance like state, I stepped down the corridor. Just on the edge of my hearing, I caught a few whispers and incoherent mumblings from the other side. I leant forward, craning my neck to hear what they had to say.

"Gareth!" Harvey interrupted my train of thought, with a large hand on my shoulder and his voice snapping me back to the pack. I jumped visibly and turned round quickly, like a guilty teenager caught in the act by his mother, beads of sweat starting to form on my forehead.

"I'm… just… what?" My reply backed up the guilty teenager to the hilt.

"I said, are you alright? You'd wandered off."

"I'm fine." I declared, catching my breath, as Nadia and Tanith came out of the windowless room with the artist, to see me looking ill at ease with Harvey looking highly confused. "She wasn't a threat, so I tried to give her some space – four of us was probably too much for her."

"Well, she's an artist, though that was pretty obvious. Apparently, she kept her works hidden in the room's storage." Tanith flipped her note pad closed and clicked a pen, before replacing it in her top pocket.

"We'll check that out later, that's not a priority at the moment." Nadia decided and turned her gaze to me. "So, what's with you jumping like you've seen a ghost, Gareth?"

I turned back down the corridor and pointed "Something weird is going on there. Can you feel that?"

"I can feel something, any idea what's up?"

"The spirits… they seem more agitated at this end of the corridor." I hypothesised, not entirely convinced of what was happening. "Something's not right here."

"That might stack with my hair then. All the hairs on my arms have just stood on end." Nadia declared. She walked off further down the corridor and stopped at a door that seemed to have suffered a lot over the years. I looked closely at the frame and could see what appeared to be scratches covered over with decades old paintwork. While care had been taken to decorate, money had not been spent on reparations to the fabric of the building that the victims may have inflicted upon it. Looking over her shoulder at us, Nadia checked us each in turn for objections and the like. When she was certain that our path was the same as hers, she threw back the door.

This room seemed sizeable, yet compact in the layout. Against the wall to the left was a decaying bed, the metal frame tarnished, the mattress fetid and dank. Cupboards and lockers had fallen into disrepair, as had the desk, facing the bed, with a generous view of the window. The view outside must have offered some detachment for the doctors as they went about their business.

At the foot of the bed, there was a complicated machine, lots of switches and dials. A printer, now empty of paper would probably have spewed out readouts, along the line of an early lie detector.

"Why don't I feel very good about this room?" Nadia asked the question, seeking answers from the clues present in the room. Harvey wandered over to the desk and started poking around, opening drawers and searching for something that might help. My gaze was drawn back to the machine, which seemed strange. Surely something like this was valuable and could have been salvaged from the place, when it went under.

"It might be something to do with the machine. I've no idea what it's for, though."

"Let me have a look, see what I can work out." Nadia walked over to the machine and started inspecting the control panel, trying to read the faded dials and make any kind of sense of it. Tanith walked over and looked over her shoulder, trying to see if there was any way to help.

"Um… you might want to leave it alone." I ventured, following one cable back to the wall. "I think it's still plugged in."

"Can electricity flow in the Hisil?" The words left Nadia's mouth and it was as if something had been switched on, but very slowly. A crackle of electricity seemed to come from the machine and I could have sworn that I saw the cables, with the little pads, start to twitch, as if like long-dead fingers coming back to life.

With a crack like a whip, the cables seemed to come alive, sparks and arcs of electrical discharge walking along them. Almost instinctively, Tanith dropped and her form shrank down to the snarling lupus, as Nadia took a step back and Harvey's menace was very evident, building from across the room, as paperwork swirled around him.

We were not getting anywhere with this spirit – having the power of electricity on its side, we were not going to be able to beat it to submission, without taking a few injuries ourselves. I stepped to my left towards the door, trying to get a better look at the spirit controlling the machine. As I did so, it lashed out in my direction, an arcing finger-like cable, making its way toward me. I flinched, fearing the pain that was sure to come and was surprised when it didn't.

Sensing the movement of the spirit-machine combination, Tanith had leapt to her left, bravely putting herself before me and taking the force of the blow. Winded, she hit the floor awkwardly, but gathered herself momentarily afterwards. I wheeled back around, behind Tanith, more toward the centre of the room, still trying to sense a chance to assist my pack here.

Harvey ducked and weaved, unsure of where to hit the 'beast', as he dodged a few aimless flails from the menace of cables and tendrils. Snapping her jaws in her near-wolf form, Nadia was not quite so lucky, one of the sharpened edges of the pads opening up a nasty cut just above her eye, though she seemed unperturbed by this. As I moved around to the plug socket, I heard a slapping noise and the crackle of electricity as it struck Tanith across the face in a wild slap. That made my mind up and I wrenched the plug from the wall.

I still can't believe that I was surprised it didn't seem to work. The rage flowing through her, Nadia let go of her restraint and roared, her muscles bulging and she struck at the animated wires. As she dragged them away from Tanith, there was another crackle and it struck her once more. Bounding over, Harvey grasped the main body of the machine and lifted it up, while Nadia pulled the ends of the cables closer to her, away from Tanith, who got back up. Desperately, the possessed machine flailed at Nadia and dealt her a blow in the head, though she seemed not to notice. Bracing herself against the cable, she pulled, as Harvey pulled the machine away, ripping the lengths of cable from the contraption and causing the spirit to vacate the place it had called home.

A swirling mass, almost like a small thunderstorm jumped out of the broken box of electrical components, rumbling and showing signs of malcontent. Not impressed with what she had seen, Nadia started clawing madly at the mass. I moved back around, away from the wall, while trying to stay aware of anything else that might cause us problems. Feeling safer now that I had Tanith back between me and our rather angry alpha, I glanced at her injuries – she had a nasty cut above her eye and she was holding her left hand over her abdomen.

"Window!" Harvey yelled and the pair of us headed for the old decorative windows, while Harvey kept an eye on Nadia and her opponent.

"It's stuck!" Tanith cried as she messed with the catch and couldn't get it to move. I grabbed at a chair and called Tanith over the sound of a minature clap of thunder.

"Tanith, duck!" She dropped and I succeeded in putting the chair leg through the small squares of glass, but did little to the framework. Standing back up, Tanith put her shoulder against the chair and heaved open the window, with a little help from me. We moved back to a safe distance and Harvey allowed the fight to manoeuvre, almost like a dancing instructor, guiding the couple across the ballroom. Nadia saw through her rage and snapping her jaw just wide of the spirit's claw-like limb. It backed off and her mighty claw came over the top in a smashing blow, pushing the spirit off balance, through the open window. Only Nadia dared to look out of the window, as she snarled and snapped, almost rabid in her determination to cow the spirit that had sought to wreak havoc upon us. A massive fork of lightning outlined Nadia's monstrous form and the strike seemed to signal finality. Nadia allowed the rage to seep away and she reduced herself to her near-human form. She wiped her face and inspected the blood on the back of her hand, before spitting out of the open window.

"You alright?" I queried, as Nadia's breathing calmed a little.

"I've been in rougher pubs," she declared, breathing heavily and standing up, looking around the pack. Satisfied with Nadia's assessment, I turned back to Tanith, who looked a little unsteady. "How about you Tanith?"

"I've been better, but I think I've been worse." As she shifted back to her human form, Tanith peeled back her blood-stained T-Shirt from her midriff and exposed a nasty cut around her navel, which had started to heal. Similarly to Nadia, she had a mark above her eye, which had bled quite a bit. "Damn, I really liked that top as well."

"Buy yourself a new one when we get out of here. Let's just focus on getting out first." Nadia declared.

"Well, that's not everything dealt with – we'll be here for months if we keep doing it one step like this, then run home." Harvey seemed mildly irritated by the situation, almost as if he had been fed a mere morsel of combat and not fully tested.

"We have the East Wing to try, or we could go further upstairs." I ventured.

"Then there's the basement, as well." Tanith countered.

"Whatever, let's make sure we search the whole place and make sure we remove violent spirits. Perhaps when we get rid of some, the rest will be less feisty." Nadia stepped out of the door and we continued on our way.

After about half an hour of searching this floor, we had found a few spirits wandering around like lost souls. Tanith took as much detail as she could, hoping to find some names for her memorial plan. All of the rooms were treatment rooms here and they seemed to have been stripped, unlike the one where the spirit caught us by surprise.

We headed upstairs on the west of the hospital and found more bedroom-come-cell arrangements. The walls were bare and where one or two had been left with the occasional piece of paperwork, these were gathered up for future use in the detective work.

"It's sad to see a piece of history like this reduced to such a poor looking shell." I commented, as we looked through one ransacked room.

"You think the hospital worthy of preservation? I think it is a wretched place." Nadia announced.

"Maybe so, Nadia. But is it not said that beauty is only skin deep?" Tanith pointed over towards a section of the crumbling plasterwork. "Look at that – you can see where the old function of the room is covered by the hospital's plaster and the needs changed. The suffering of the inhabitants of the hospital is only skin-deep, in the grand scale of things."

"I'm not sure, that might just seem to trivialise the lives that were lost here. I agree that there is more to this place than death, suffering and malice, but we must convince the spirits of that as well." I pointed out a wisp of a man – not physically old, but haggard and drawn in the face. "Don't worry, my friend. We will help restore this place to how it was before the hurt came." Idly, the spirit plodded on, straight through me, as if not aware of my presence. It was as if someone had just walked over my grave and my whole body shivered momentarily with the cold. "See? It was as if I weren't there."

A little later on, our search of the second floor completed, we moved back to the main building and continued to head upstairs. On the third floor, we found a wet room, complete with sunken baths, which drew our interest.

"Could be a trap, stay alert." Harvey noted. "The only equipment that was left so far has had spirits in it."

"Are you going to get a set of tools and remove the baths from the floor, when you're leaving this place?" You could get money for the equipment that was possessed, but nowhere near as much as you'd spend on breaking the baths out, surely." I caught Harvey's scornful look as I walked into the room, the rest of the pack looking around, anxious. "I see your point – there is cause for concern, but I'm just playing devil's advocate." Even so, I dropped to all fours, my vision changing to monochrome, but my nose more than making up for it, by picking up intricate details in the movement of the air.

"Be careful, Gareth." Cautioned Tanith, as I approached the edge of one bath and kept low to the ground. I sniffed and noticed one specific thing, which I had difficulty in conveying to the pack.

"Water… smells strange… not old." I managed with some effort to contort my lupine throat around the words. I turned to drop back down the stairs to my packmates and as I pushed off against the floor, my feet slipped from under me.

I felt like a cartoon character, running as fast as I could across thin air, struggling for purchase on the wet stone of the floor. Suddenly, I hit the floor and slid ungainly into the dark water. This did not feel like water, as there was a solid feeling of hands probing and groping at my sodden fur. I tried to observe them, but could see nothing due to the darkness. Snapping at anything getting close enough to my jaws and kicking my legs frantically, I connected with something and felt the arm recoil in pain. Not a groping hand any more, but a bunched fist, it slammed into my midriff and I doubled up, losing a lot of air and gulping back a mouthful of foul tasting stagnant water. Strange patterns danced across my eyes and I started to feel light headed as my air supply began to run out. For what seemed like ages, I struggled against the grip of this fell spirit and a hand grasped me at the scruff of my neck. My energy sapped completely, I could not fight any longer and gave in to the pull that hoisted me away.

"Didn't I say to be careful?" Tanith scalded me as I coughed up a mouthful of the foul water. It didn't take much effort to look like a kicked puppy, my fur soaking wet and with me lying across the ground in an expanding puddle. As my eyesight cleared, I noted that Nadia, Tanith and Harvey were all quite sodden as well. Slowly catching my breath, I nodded to Tanith and struggled to my feet on shaking legs.

I pushed the hair out of my eyes and looked around the room apologetically at my pack mates. "Looks like I'll need a shower tonight then."

"Don't push your luck, you're not funny." Tanith declared and walked off, leaving a wet trail across the floor.

"Sorry?" I tried, but got no response and squelched off after the pack.

"Right, so where do we head now? This floor has been swept and we know a little more about the inhabitants – some malicious, others in need of assistance." Nadia, aware that tempers were getting short, still wanted to continue a little longer.

"I'd say the first floor on the other side. It looks like we've got movement there," said Harvey, casting his glace down the corridor and taking advantage of his animalistic senses.

"Alright Harvey lead on," declared Nadia. We descended a flight of stairs and entered the main corridor, which was considerably shorter than on the other side. The double doors opened into a huge dormitory or ward, where there were beds spread out on either side, with rails for isolating curtains, long since departed. As the four of us stood in the doorway, we took in the appearance of the people walking around was not that of normal humans. They seemed like they were in 'near human' form, but demonstrating attributes of other animals. Among them, we spotted the occasional werewolf easily enough, as we had seen our own forms. At the far end, a larger bay seemed to house a well built figure of a man, the lower half of his form akin to that of a horse.

"What is this place? One of Rolf Harris' more macabre jokes?" Nadia stepped cautiously forward, as one or two of the spirits regarded her warily, but not with any degree of malice, shrinking away from her. Even the powerful and proud Centaur at the far end of the corridor shrank back from her gaze.

"Yes, it looks like Animal Hospital on drugs." Harvey declared, as Tanith looked questioningly at me, as I could only shrug. We followed the pair through the watching crowd of creatures and spirits, but we sensed that they were wary. Even those that reminded us of other Uratha were backing off, as if we were unlike them somehow. A couple of sets of eyes glanced at us from beneath the cover of the antiquated hospital beds and we largely ignored them. Walking confidently to the end of the corridor, Nadia found herself face to chest with the centaur. He towered over her and looked down, though the look on his face was still one of quiet fear.

"We do not come to harm you – our aim is to restore balance to this place and subdue some of the renegade spirits here." Behind her back, I cringed slightly at Nadia's choice of words. "Could we count upon your support?"

Detecting a shift in the mood of the room, I glanced about at the other spiritual denizens, who did not seem outwardly altered by this coming together. Slowly, the centaur nodded agreement, to Nadia's satisfaction. She turned and walked out of the room, allowing us to follow.

As we exited the double doors and pulled them to behind us, Tanith turned her head to the left, regarding a door to what looked like a storeroom. "Did you guys hear that? It sounded like a dog scratching at the door, there." Sure enough, the sound was just like a dog's claws dragging down the door, to attract a master's attention, letting them in. The spherical handle of the door explained why something like a dog or cat could not operate the handle.

When Tanith opened the door, the most surprising visage came into view – a young man, no more than his early twenties was squatted on all fours by the door. As it opened, he backed away hurriedly, so as not to be struck by the door. We all stared at the barely clothed individual, as he rocked back on his haunches and scratched his ear with his foot. It was like watching some weirdly immersive interpretive dance. I was horrified at the mental state of the man, while Tanith decided to crouch down and address him herself.

"Thomas? Thomas Belmont?" She queried after a few seconds examining the young man before her. The young man looked up at her, with knowing in his eyes. A glaze of a tear caused his eyes to shimmer slightly and he strained his throat to emit a dog-like whine.

"You know him, Tanith? What's wrong with him?" Nadia queried, as Tanith reached out and patted the young man's head, ruffling the lanky hair trailing down his back and noting his reaction to her advances.

"I've picked up some details from the files – he might be one of the patients that was 'delusional'. I think he was one of us and they literally beat the wolf out of him."

"Is there anything we can do for him now?"

"Short of ending it for him, I don't think so. Though I think we'd better see what else there is first, as that might not be the best idea." Tanith hastily amended her idea, as she caught my look of panic, behind Nadia's back. We walked out of the room and the spirit of a man, with the mind of a wolf tried to whine, sounding very sorrowful, as we left the corridor and descended back to the lobby.

"Where now? We've still got a few floors above that to check out." I queried as we gathered our emotions and grabbed a quick snack.

"Well, upstairs is bound to be something powerful – I've played enough video games to work that out." Harvey declared to the pack.

"I'm not sure that life works like that, Harvey. Well, not all the time." Tanith piped up, as Nadia peered at a door leading under the stairs, which had remained largely untouched.

"We could try in there, if you don't fancy going up for now. We'll have to do it at some point." She stood near the door, but didn't open it

"Yeah, but Rome wasn't built in a day, was it?" I responded, checking my watch and seeing that we were now approaching eleven at night. Knowing I had to be up for work in the morning, I had to make sure I'd at least attempted to sleep, before embarking on the rounds. I didn't want to take the Mick with my new supervisor at the depot, kinfolk or not.

"Come on, you wimp!" Harvey nudged me with his shoulder, as he pushed past, approaching the door, while Tanith stood there, transfixed by the arched woodwork above the door.

"What's up, Tanith?" I waved a hand in front of her face, breaking the spell.

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing." She faltered and brushed my hand away. "After you."

The door opened up to reveal a staircase descending into the darkness. I placed my fingers along the wall and dragged them down, trying to keep my balance. It was bone dry and not as cold or clammy as I had suspected. As I pulled my hand from the wall, I noticed that there was some deposit on the tips of my fingers. I sniffed and recoiled from the smell of the soot. "Is this the boiler room, or something?" I asked to the void in front of me.

"If that smell is anything to go by, it probably is!" Harvey commented on his way down into the darkness. Messing around with a torch, we eventually managed to find out way down among old pipes going over head and a large furnace. The black dust led to a small pile of coal, with a spade and an ominous glow emanated from behind the grille of the dormant beast that was at one point used to heat the building. The large water tank above the grate was now rusted, holey and overall useless, but something seemed alive within this area.

"I just want to check I'm not seeing things now. Can you all see that?" I pointed at the grate and looked at everyone else. Tanith hadn't taken her gaze from the orangey-yellow glow from beyond. As we all looked and peered closely, there was a sound of crackling and an intense heat, as if a bonfire was raging a few feet from us.

I watched as the grate lifted itself up slowly and a sizeable ember fell out. We all took a step back and I hooked Tanith's elbow, pulling her back ever so slightly, seemingly unbeknown to her. The ember seemed to writhe and contort, slowly growing, as it took on a humanoid shape. It drew itself up to an impressive height then stood before us, making a clinking noise as what I had assumed was a spirit started to cool down and we beheld a muscular young man, carved out of flame. He was wearing a pair of tattered trousers and looked about us with an arrogant sort of grin on his face. His flaming gaze fell on Tanith and his smile turned to one of delight. She smiled back, almost lost in the flames that seemed to be his very being.

"What on earth is it?!" Hissed Nadia, trying to find an answer to this latest dilemma. "Is it hostile?"

"If it were hostile, I'm sure it would have killed us by now. Maybe it's trying to assess us," I hoped aloud.

"I think it's hungry," Tanith snapped out of her apparent stupor and walked over to the pile of coals. Selecting a reasonable lump, she walked back and proffered it to the man standing before her. A deep rumbling growl accompanied a grin spreading across its face and it reached out tentatively, taking the coal and looking at it. He bit into the rock and chewed it thoughtfully, his smile returning and the fires of his eyes glowed with renewed vigour.

"We are trying to balance the spirits in the hospital – things have got a little out of hand. Will you help us?" Tanith seemed strange as she talked to the spirit, very relaxed, but that felt so wrong to me. I noticed that the pupils of her wide eyes were dilated and something seemed wrong. On impulse, a light growl escaped my throat.

It was difficult for the spirit to articulate, but it opened the grinning mouth and some smoke belched forth from between his teeth. The sound of a roaring fire accompanied the voice, but I think that the response was one worded – "YES!" While Tanith smiled and clapped her hands, the other three of us tried to make our way out of the basement, wiping sweat from our collective brows.

"Well, that was interesting. I take it that you're back with us now, Tanith?" Relief flooded my system as we had managed to walk out of the furnace, even though we had practically carried Tanith away.

"Hmm?" She seemed to be reacting as if she was coming around from meditation, or down from some sort of substance abuse.

"You went a little weird there, that's all."

"What? It was fine."

"I'm sure it was – I'll talk to you about it later."

We ended up back in the main foyer, giving us a chance to clean off some of the dirt and dust from ourselves and the bottle of booze was passed around once more. I was getting knackered and with the evening we'd had so far, I wanted a decent shower and a warm bed, though I had the feeling that the rest of the pack weren't as close to that conclusion as me.

"So, shall we finish this building before hitting the hay?" I stared at Nadia, incomprehension bubbling underneath, but suppressing it, in case the pack saw it as weakness on my part.

"Well, if we go to the top, that's where these things usually finish, isn't it? Logic," declared Harvey.

"I think that's more like cliché, Harvey." Tanith pointed out.

"What's the difference – life has become more than a little unbelievable of late, no?" Shrugging at Tanith, I followed Harvey and Nadia up the stairs, with Tanith catching up, tucking the now depleted bottle of rye back into her pack.

The stairs led up into a large spacious hallway or anteroom. A skylight in the ceiling had leaked water in the mortal realm and this was reflected here slightly, with distorted panes of glass, twisted into unrealistic and jagged shapes – clearly the skylight in the material realm was broken and Mother Nature was trying to reclaim this from humanity. A large, imposing set of double doors stood before us, the intricate carving picturing little demons, laughing and making disgusting faces at us all.

Harvey turned the handle and pushed open the door into a large, spacious ward, quite bright and airy, compared to the others which we had visited. Nurse spirits wandered from bed to bed ministering to unseen patients, while a white coated doctor figure paced around, checking a clipboard at the foot of one of the far beds. A nurse turned to look at us, though we could not tell with what she saw us – her face was smooth, without feature. No mouth, nor eyes or ears and the whole effect took me aback. She glided over to us and seemed to inspect us, as if trying to work out who or what we were.

Suddenly, she declared "The doctor will see you now." And stepped aside, revealing the doctor, who walked over purposefully, yet slowly. His features were plain to see – they looked sad, with his thinning, greying hair, sunken eyes and almost grey complexion.

"Ah, visitors." His voice had all of the cheer of an accountant facing redundancy. "I shall have to let you see the Matron first." It was only at this point that I had noticed we had strayed into the middle of the ward and the door was quite some distance behind us.

"Oh, it's alright, we came to see you," trilled Nadia, as there was a boom of the door behind us slamming. Cautiously, we all turned around, to see what was in store for us. A rather large female figure, dressed as a nurse, which could only possibly be the Matron stood there, dwarfing us. The stern expression across her features said that she was a no-nonsense type from the 1950s.

As we prepared ourselves to face the spirited Matron, she seemed to look over us, waiting. As this happened, the doctor clicked his fingers and said "You, gel! I think I shall see you now." On impulse, Tanith turned around and stared into the face of the Doctor. I felt something stir nearby and wanted to be sick, but kept it together, as he mumbled something to Tanith and then said "give in!" One of the beds seemed to have a patient in, who got up. He beckoned to Tanith, who walked off in the direction of his bed. Helpless, I watched the Matron, as I felt my feet rooted to the floor. The Doctor turned and walked to the next bed, continuing his rounds.

The Matron continued to drone on about something, but this was lost on me as I tried to take stock of the situation, with Tanith being captured by some sort of a spirit and the other three of us trying our damnedest to do something about the Doctor and his Matron here. Two orderlies flanked us and a nurse grabbed an old fashioned syringe from one of the medical trolleys nearby

"Or we will have to sedate you." Said Matron, as Nadia made a decision, punching one of the orderlies squarely in the face. Harvey immediately assumed his terrifying Gauru form, striding forward and trying to get to the Matron, so he could tear her to smaller pieces. I backed off as the nurse came after me with the syringe. I grabbed a clipboard from the end of the bed and brought it up just in time, as the hypodermic slammed into the notes on the patient, they referred to.

"Sorry mum, but she's not a lady." I stood on the nurse's foot and slammed the clipboard into her faceless features, causing her to stagger back. She flailed her hands at me, though didn't make any contact, as I proceeded to whack her a few times with the clipboard to make sure. The curtained booth where Tanith had been taken seemed calm and as I looked over there, I heard Tanith giggle, inexplicably.

"I'm glad you're having fun. We could use a hand though!" I dropped the clipboard and ran over to Nadia, lending my aid as Harvey tore one of the orderlies in two, a massive chunk of torso flying through the air. He let loose a roar of defiance as he flicked his head from side to side. Nadia had chosen her beast-wolf form and was biting at whatever she could get at. I grew into my Dalu form, taking on the monster to augment my human features. I grabbed the orderly and allowed Nadia to bite and claw to her heart's content, while keeping a view of Harvey's situation, as another spirit flew across the room and was slow to get back up. Wisely, this spirit nurse kept her distance, content to lick her wounds and live for another day.

The orderly stopped moving and seeing a look of terror cross the 'face' of the nurse, as Nadia rounded on her was really odd. Harvey swung a fist at the Matron, who dodged the blow by taking half a pace backwards. Had it made contact, that may have severely damaged the more powerful spirit and Harvey overbalanced slightly, cursing as only a werewolf in Gauru form knows how. Another nurse grabbed his arm and he made short work of her, severing her head in one powerful bite. All of the rage took its toll on Harvey's form and as he launched himself for the Matron, he shrunk considerably to his Urshul form, the mighty weight of this beast still crashing into the Matron, sending her sprawling. Nadia was not content to allow this to pass, so she moved into her war-form, striding forward and casually knocking me aside to clear up the mess.

Nadia got to the writing mess of spirit and werewolf and picked up the Matron as if she were made of paper. Harvey hung on with his jaws and let go as she were lifted from him, before watching as Nadia punched the Matron and slammed her head into the door. Quickly checking the other spirits were not advancing on us, I hurried over, as Nadia burst the Matron's head like a horrible boil, an ethereal puss oozing out onto the floor, as the figure went limp and Nadia dropped the remains. She turned and charged back past me, knocking me sprawling once more, as this time her stamina reached its limit, causing her to stumble, but continue running as a human once more, pointing at the Doctor and leading the charge.

The three of us ran hell for leather down the room, Harvey arriving first and pouncing on the Doctor's back, tearing at whatever he could get his jaws around. Nadia arrived second and I was getting quite annoyed to be missing out on the fun. I gave in and let my own rage take over. I felt the raw power of the beast within me. I felt the speed and my muscles swelling to huge proportions. Above all else, I felt angry, really angry! I strode up to Nadia and tossed her aside, grabbing at a strangely solid flesh for a spirit, tearing and biting my way through. Harvey got in the way and prevented me from getting too much damage in, but the effect was the same, given that a bloody "NOOOOO!" emanated from what was left of the doctor's spirit, as we devoured its essence, cleansing part of the hospital. I dropped to my knees, exhausted and sodden, our hardest encounter a success.

Slowly, Nadia regained her composure and walked back over to the curtained bed. She drew back the curtains and remarked "what the hell?" I pulled myself back to my feet and staggered over, remembering about Tanith, as my head cleared and the rage returned to its compartment for another day.

Tanith lay on the bed, hair and makeup a mess, with a confused girly grin on her face. "Did I miss something?" She queried as Nadia stared at her open mouthed, impersonating a goldfish.

"If what I heard was true and that was the sort of spirit I think, he won't even call you." Tanith's happy state subsided a little and she struggled up, with our help. "Come on, let's go home now."

"Judging by the sounds coming from behind the curtain, you had a much better time of it than we did." I tried not to look bothered by it, though conflicting emotions take some hiding, even for me.

"Really? What sort of noises?" Tanith questioned, as she regained more control of herself, following us out of the ward's doors.

"There's only one of the seven deadly sins that would do it justice, I think." I tried tact, hardly a strong suit of mine.

"That's not true, Gareth. Give the keys to Fort Knox to Scrooge McDuck and he'd sound just like that," Nadia quipped as she looked at me, grinning. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Tanith had started to blush. I shut up, putting my hands up to Nadia, conceding the argument and we walked on. The four of us staggered down the stairs, nursing cuts and bruises and I stopped at the foot of the stairs, looking into the distance for a moment.

"You gonna check the files now, Tanith?" Harvey queried

"They'll still be here in the morning, no doubt. Let's go back home, I could murder a cuppa."

"And a cigarette, I suppose." Nadia added. Tanith playfully slapped the Alpha across the shoulder.

"Hardly a way to talk about someone you barely know, is it?" She feigned offence and staggered out of the door, with Harvey's assistance. I stopped them just outside the door and peered into the scenery, pryingly.

"What are you doing now? You'd better not be finding us any more spirits, Gareth." Nadia tapped her foot impatiently.

"No… I'm just not sure why it's here, that's all."

"What's here?" Tanith was now getting curious at the turn of events.

"Hold on, I need to concentrate a second." As I watched, I allowed my vision to drift out of focus. I saw a telltale blue shimmer, which I had found before, meaning that the gauntlet was at its thinnest, almost frayed like a sheet of insubstantial fabric. I put my hand up, catching a 'strand' of the gauntlet and pulled gently. Slowly, I picked my way through, opening a way back across to the material realm and home. The pack followed me back to the hospital at gone midnight in the world of humanity. "Brilliant. Now we don't have to walk home… although, you might not be fit to drive."

"Piss off, Gareth!" It was my turn to receive a playful slap, as we made our way down the drive, to bundle into Tanith's car and head back home. For the record, I don't ever want to be slapped by her. Even a playful slap hurt.


End file.
